A Few Mistakes Ago
by WeBothWentMad
Summary: What if Paige and Walter had been together the whole time? Abandonded
1. Prologue

_Been losing grip,_

 _Oh, sinking ships_

 _You showed up just in time_

 **Prologue**

It was another killer shift. Paige felt horrible that Ralph had to stay for it. It sucked and Paige hated that to provide for her son she had to work as a waitress. Part of her knew that she could do better; it just wasn't that time.

Ralph's year in school so far was not the best; she was told that he was often distant. Paige had been working to try to figure out why. She just hoped that the next year would be better.

She had been working at Kovalsky's for a year now and was just starting to get to know the regular customers. Paige was wiping the counter down by where Ralph was sitting. He looked to be making lines with pencils that the waitresses used to jot down orders. Paige dropped the rag behind the counter and walked over to Ralph.

"How are you doing?" Paige asks as she puts a hand on Ralph's shoulder.

Silence.

He rarely replies. But at least he does talk to her. Some of his tendencies go to not talking to anyone. This was one of the reasons that he hasn't been doing well in school. She pushed her hair behind her ear and stood by Ralph for another minute before going back to some of the other tables to take orders.

Once she finishes getting the orders she walks back to take them to the cook. She sets them back on the tack and walks back out. As she walks out the bell above the door dings and Paige looks up.

She sees two men walk in; one that's about 5'10 or so with scraggly brown hair with streaks of gray and stubble that looks like it hasn't been shaved in days. He has some identification card for a nearby university. The other man next to him is about an inch or two taller, with curly black hair and a tan hue to his skin.

The second man interests her instantly and she doesn't know why. It almost bothers her that this guy interests her. She ignores it and continues to do her job; trying to ignore what she thinks might be that one man staring at her.

Paige looks around her to see the other waitresses busy so she takes it upon herself to go up to them. Paige walks carefully up to them and flashes a smile at them.

"How may I help you today?" Paige asks.

"Just an um, table for two." The second man says. Paige nods flashing another smile at them.

"Follow me," She says motioning for them to follow her. They follow her as she shows them to a booth. Paige tries to keep a steady pace as she leads them to their seat.

"Here are your seats. My name is Paige and I will be your waitress today. I'll be back to get your drinks." Paige says as the men nod along. They seem not to be as interested in what she was saying but there were several customers that acted this way.

Paige walks away and back behind the counter to get the other orders for customers. Paige carefully carries them out to their tables and set them down. When she glances back at the table with the two men; they had gotten out pounds of paperwork and a laptop. They looked to be hard at work and Paige would almost hate to interrupt. They were in a heated conversation about probably whatever they were working on or studying.

Paige plastered a smile on her face as she walked up to the newest person walking in. She greeted them and led them to another seat. She let the smile slip off her face as she walked over to check on Ralph. He had taken to angling the pencils at different directions and Paige let him.

Paige walked back through the restaurant and wove in and out of the tables, checking on people's orders and making sure that they enjoyed what they were having. She walked up to the table taking a deep breath.

"Anything I can get you?" Paige asks smiling. The men look at each other before either of them responding.

"Water," The second man says as he ducks his head back down at his papers. Paige nods in response and turns her gaze to the first man.

"Coffee," The first man responds and then converses quietly with the other man. Paige nods jotting it down before walking away. She puts her pad into the little pocket in her apron. Paige walks back to the counter and looks over at Ralph to see him changing the pencils again. She looks back at the two men as she gets the coffee pot ready. She catches the second man staring at her before looking back down.

"Could I use those condiments?" Ralph asks quietly as Paige passes by. She nods and passes him the specific condiments he was asking for. Ralph nods and sets them up a specific way that only he knew.

Paige walked over to the coffee pot and poured it into a cup; she set the pot down once she was convinced that the cup was full enough. She walked over to the water pitcher and poured the cup. She placed the cup of coffee and water onto a tray and made her way to the table. She placed the drinks in front of the people that ordered them and flashed them another smile.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" Paige asks as she looks them over a second time.

"No thanks," The second man says. Paige nods and takes the tray with her as she walks back to the counter. Paige watches for a moment as Ralph moves the salt and pepper shaker around.

For the next couple hours Paige will refill their glasses. But she never knows their names; they are talking about some complicated subject that she probably couldn't hope to understand.

As her shift was ending she had finished up with most of her customers and the two men were finishing up. They were putting away their papers and such; Paige noticed the way the second man's muscles rippled through his shirt. Paige watched as Ralph kept playing with the condiments, he was moving the sugar around and she was hoping to understand what he was doing.

Paige was wiping down the counter on the farther side from Ralph as she saw the first man walk out the door. But the second man was standing by Ralph moving the salt around the other condiments Ralph was using. Paige cocked her head at him wondering why a stranger would be moving cooking ingredients around with her son.

"Excuse me? Can I help you?"Paige asks as she walks up to the man and her son.

"No, but you should help him." The man says. Paige looks at the man like he is crazy. What does he mean, to help Ralph? Who the hell does he think he is to tell her about her son?

Paige walks closer to her son and watches as the man's eyes follow her.

"Excuse me?" Paige asks as she scrutinizes this stranger.

"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your son is a genius." The man says and Paige looks at him strangely. He takes a deep breath before continuing.

"Your son is a genius, so he um tends to have harder times with emotional situations…" The man starts. Paige motions to a booth.

.

.

They talk for hours. He informs her about geniuses and a few that he works with. Ralph sits next to her and continues playing with the condiments. Occasionally while talking to her the man will move the condiments around to match Ralph's movements.

"We should probably get going." Paige says as she glances at a yawning Ralph. The man nods.

"Oh, I'm Walter O'Brien." He says as she looks back up at him.

"Paige Dineen." She says smiling. He nods and starts to get up. Paige stands up and Ralph slowly moves after her.

"Um, if there is anything you need help with. With um him you can call me." Walter says rubbing the back of his neck.

"Alright, and here is mine just so you know that it's me." Paige says writing out her number on a napkin as he writes his out on another napkin to give to her.

After they exchanged their numbers he, very nervously asked her out.

And she said yes without hesitation.

 **A/N:** Another sneak attack from the plot bunny. I feel bad for starting another story after already having so many active. The song is This Love by Taylor Swift. Please follow, favorite and review if you want me to continue.

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	2. Chapter 1 Welcome Fit for a King

**A Few Mistakes Ago**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome Fit for a King**

 _Fade into view, it's been awhile since_

 _I have even heard from you_

 _I should just tell you to leave cause I_

 _Know exactly where it leads but I_

 _Watch us go round and round each time_

 **6 Months after Prologue**

Paige watched from the corner of her eye as Walter worked on setting up the wireless. It was her own small way of helping him; he has been complaining how his company hasn't been doing well. She is a little annoyed that he won't let her actually see it. Sure she has been over at his place, but it has been on days when he knows none of his coworkers are there. Walter hasn't let her meet the geniuses that he works with. He has often enjoyed showing Ralph several little toys. Often Walter has offered to watch Ralph to show him new things; she has been thankful for him to help out.

"Hey, kid! You're making a mess! Paige! Again your boy's all over - with the shakers!" Her boss yells. She switches her gaze to her boss and then over to Ralph. She sighs in annoyance.

"I know, he knows, I know. He's just having a hard time adjusting in school. He'll be back next week. Promise." Paige says hoping that that would get her boss off her back for now. Her boss sighs and walks to the front of the diner to greet the incoming customers.

"Hey, honey. It's okay. Mr. Gianakos just likes to keep things neat. Remember we talked about that kind of thing before? Doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, okay?" Paige says as she leans down to Ralph's level sitting at the counter. She sends a look over to Walter as he is typing a few things out on his laptop.

Paige walks back over to the counter as she works on cleaning a few of the glasses and preparing some drink orders. Her eyes tend to bounce between Ralph and Walter. She had realized that she has strong feelings for Walter; she wouldn't tell him because she knows this is the type of thing that might scare him away and she didn't want him to get freaked out. That had happened once when she had said that she liked him and that had resulted in her having to calm him down.

Paige watches as Walter walks over to Ralph and engages in what Paige learned was a makeshift game of chess. Her son and boyfriend have gotten along quite well the past few months. He has been able to engage Ralph and try to understand her more emotionally. He has certainly improved; it doesn't help that sometimes she worries about his job from what she learned. He also refuses to let her meet his coworkers. Paige walked over towards them in a free moment.

"Hey, uh I need to get going." Walter says and Paige nods. She leans in and kisses his cheek. That was as close as PDA that he would get to and she didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable than he already was.

"Bye." Walter said simply to both of them.

"Bye Walter! Will you come over to our house tonight?" Ralph asks looking up at Walter. Walter glances at Paige as if asking her and she nods in response.

"Sure, buddy. I'll see you guys tonight." Walter says walking towards the exit.

"Wireless is up. Don't yell at that boy." Walter says to the boss as he walks out. Paige stifles a smile Walter standing up for Ralph.

.

.

Paige was cleaning a few of the glasses to prepare drinks for some customers when the sound of several tires squealing and sirens wailing. She saw men in suits with glasses kind of like the secret agents she has seen in the cheesy spy movies. She is even more surprised when she sees Walter walk in through the door nodding at her lightly. He walked in with four other people behind him with pounds of equipment.

"Owner! Agent Gallo, Homeland Security. We need to commandeer your diner for a national emergency. You can stay. But that's it." A man in a dark suit with dark sunglasses says. He throws a pile of money on the counter. Paige sends a questioning glance towards Walter; but he isn't looking in her direction.

"Everybody out! Come on! Everybody out! Come on, come on! No, no, no, no, no. You-you pay tomorrow. Come on." Paige's boss yells at the customers in the restaurant. What the hell is going on?

"What are you doing?" The man that must be an agent asks one of the men that came in with Walter.

"Any idea the bacteria on countertops? Just from chicken alone, there are over 20 diseases you can get from exposure." He explains. Paige walks back to put a few of her things away. Frankly she didn't want to see what exactly was going on. She could try to convince Walter to tell her something about it later.

"No, no, no, no, you stay." He says grabbing Paige's arm.

"Uh, Nemos, no customers, no tip, And I cannot leave Ralph here with-" Paige started saying until he interrupted her.

"Listen, my immigration status makes me not so comfortable around Federal agents. You lock up." He says and Paige sighs. It looks like she will be stuck here.

"Good to see you, Ralph." Walter says and Ralph nods at him. One of the men with a fedora on that had walked in with Walter kept his eyes darting between Walter and Ralph. Frankly, Paige was a little freaked out by it.

"Roughly 89 minutes until the first plane goes down. Their lives are in our hands." The agent says and Paige looks over at him in surprise. What the hell is Walter involved in. She almost asked the guy that was closest to her but decided against it as the guy looked like he could throw up at any given moment.

"Happy, script a POST check after the systems stabilized. Sylvester, run the odds on the patch linking back into the software. We do not want the same problem tomorrow. Toby look for a saboteur." Walter orders the people that had came in with him. Paige has to admit that she finds it a little hot the way he orders them around.

"Walter, look for coffee. This is gonna take me, like, 90 seconds." The man that is Toby says to Walter.

"Screw this up, brains and guts are gonna bounce all over town." The man that Paige thinks is Sylvester says. Why are they being so morbid with whatever is going on.

"Actually, fuel tanks ignite on impact. You won't find a body part." The woman that Walter addressed as Happy said.

"Eh, a blood-soaked spleen could burn at a slower rate." Toby says and Paige looks over at him strangely. Don't they realize that a nine year old is here? Shouldn't Walter at least correct them? When she realizes that he won't Paige decides that she needs to take care of that.

"Hey, please check your language around my nine-year-old." Paige says and when they all look at her oddly.

"Be decent in my place of work. Thank you." Paige adds and then walks back behind the counter. She catches Walter looking over at her with a soft smile and when he sees that she caught him he looks down.

A door slams and Paige looks over towards the back door to see the man from earlier walking back in.

"Secure channel to LAX. Air traffic supervisor is on the line. His name is Brooks." The man says to Walter handing him a phone.

"Okay. Mr. Brooks, I'm hacking into airport security." Walter starts saying and Paige zones out. She likes the way he looks while being in command. Paige had never seen him work and she already likes it. She deducts that this must be the team that he will sometimes mention in conversation. He would sometimes show Ralph some hacking techniques and she would watch but she had never seen him truly at work like he was.

She looks back up and notices that some of the others on his team are preparing to go somewhere. But, Walter was staying.

"Walter, you tell that waitress I'm gonna be right back." The man Toby says looking like he will be leaving soon.

"Toby, in situations like this, carelessness, mistakes, they will haunt you. I know this from experience." Walter says grabbing Toby's arm. Paige had known some of Walter's past that he would let her know. From his mistakes that he made he had told her that he had trusted someone he shouldn't have and it resulted in a terrible mistake.

"Walter, I'm always on point. Have you seen my hat?" The man Toby asks trying to comfort him before walking away.

"Here, I thought you might be thirsty." Paige says setting a glass of water on the desk by him. He looks up at the small interruption and gives her a small smile.

"Thank you." Walter says and Paige responds with a soft hum.

"How are you?" Paige asks crossing her arms over her chest looking down at Walter.

"Fine," Walter says as he continues to look at the screen.

"Walter, I've known you long enough to tell when you are fine and when you are not." Paige says and shoots Walter with a pointed look.

"I- I'm… I don't know." Walter says pausing trying to think it over. Paige steps closer to him and places her hand on his shoulder as a small way to comfort him. He smiles shortly at her and she is thankful for a reaction. Walter clears his throat as he is trying to sort his thoughts.

"I'm feeling worried. I would prefer not to be the reason that thousands of people die." He says still kind of uncomfortable with the prospect of revealing how he feels.

"Ralph, is playing a grand master who's about to lose in chess." Walter says nodding over to Ralph and Sylvester. Paige smiles as she watches her son; she is proud of all that he has accomplishes.

"Walter, you see this? Check mate in eight moves." Sylvester says as he stares in awe at the kid before him. Paige smiles and glances back over at Walter

"Walter, we're approaching the data center. We should have the backup hard drive soon." Happy's voice come crackling through the walkie talkie. Paige walks back over to Ralph as soon as she realizes that Walter needs to get back to work.

"Copy that, Happy." Walter says into his walkie talkie.

"Walt? We got a problem. No one's home." Happy says into the walkie talkie and Paige watches as she can see that Walter is slowly losing it.

"You're the mechanical engineer! Pick the lock!" The agent yells into Walter's walkie talkie.

"I have my tools, but it'll take a lot longer than the six minutes we have before the bad software backs up - onto the servers." Happy responds.

Paige can't tell what is being said, glances over at Ralph to see him absentmindedly playing in one of the booths. Paige walks over to him and sits beside him as she faintly hears what is going on. She rubs Ralph's shoulder as a way to calm him and she hopes that he is more focused on his work.

"We're down to a four-percent chance of success." Sylvester says solemnly and Paige looked over at Walter for a moment. He ran a hand through his hair that was progressively getting messier.

"Five minutes from now, the software we need disappears forever. If that happens," The agent says trailing off as if to let everyone else fill in the blanks. At this Paige knew that Ralph probably shouldn't hear this.

"Hey, Ralph; let's go in the office, okay?" Paige said leading Ralph away to the back office. After she made sure that he was settled in she walked back out to see that Walter was losing it even more.

"We got to abandon the data center. We got to pull the team back, get four minds working together at once, and then, maybe within an hour, we'll be able…" Walter says as his mind is probably going ninety miles an hour.

"By then, the first two planes will be out of fuel." The agent said and Paige saw him contemplating it.

"Do you really think you can come up - with an option by then?" The agent asked and Paige realized what Walter was thinking. He was just putting off the idea of hundreds of people dying.

"Hold on. You're just accepting two planes going down." Paige says butting in and she saw conflict in his eyes.

"We lose two planes to save 54. That's a trade we're gonna have to make." The agent says to counter her and she was still aghast at their logic.

"Contact the FAA and tell them these two flights are terminal." Walter says crossing his arms over his chest.

"Agent Gallo is implementing the greater good theory. Loss is acceptable as long as the resulting gain is large enough." Walter says turning to her. Paige knows that he is thinking logically; but doesn't he see how it would still result in death. Which was what he had been trying to avoid from repeating his past.

"No, it isn't. You save everybody. Normal people save everybody." Paige says and instantly regrets her choice of words.

"I'm not normal." He says roughly. They had once discussed how Walter hates when he is in the category with normal people and it was one of his largest pet peeves. She'll apologize to him later over it all.

"I don't care! Use that 197 IQ of yours. Take a deep breath and reset." Paige says leaning against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Reset." Walter repeats a few times as it runs through his mind. It helps Paige that she was the one that planted the thought in his mind.

"Happy, we need to reset the door lock. We need to brown-out ten blocks around the data center." Walter says into the walkie talkie and she hears an affirmative through the walkie talkie of Happy on the other end.

"Just turn it off in that one building! We can't focus a surge that precisely, but a brief power surge will open up the door, and we'll be able to get in." Walter continues as he tries to figure out the exact necessities of this plan.

"You're gonna owe me a new slim pick." Paige can hear Happy murmur into the walkie talkie.

"All right, we need to find a municipal junction box that covers that area. It should be on a commercial street." Walter instructs and leans against one of the table in the diner.

"Got one!" Paige heard being shouted through the walkie talkie and she watched Walter handle the situation like a professional.

"Alright, calculate the kilowatts it'll take it'll take to overpower a surge within a ten-block radius." Walter directs towards Sylvester. Paige watches the back and forth communications between Walter and his team. She was amazed at how they worked together so well. In a way she was proud of him and liked the way that he was working with them.

"No, no, no, no, no." She heard Sylvester murmur as he approached the chalkboard that contained the daily specials.

"Not now, Sylvester." Walter said as he looked over at him.

"Wait, wait, what are you doing?" The Agent yelled at Sylvester and Paige bristled at the man's hostility.

"I can't calculate without order; it's my process." Sylvester says trying to organize the pieces of chalk. Paige sighs as she tries to figure out another way to help him.

"My process involves my foot in your ass." The Agent yelled at Sylvester and Paige could feel herself getting even more annoyed with the man for considering the man's feelings. Paige moved over to the board and grabbed one piece and swiped off the others.

"Here one piece. It's the biggest and the smallest, so it's in order." Paige says handing him the piece of chalk and he smiles. Paige can feel Walter's eyes burning through her as she helped the man that is on his team.

"That works." Sylvester says as he starts calculating.

"Uh, Sylvester, I don't want to hurry your process-" Walter says trailing off as he turns towards Sylvester.

"All right! We need exactly 500,000 kilowatts." Sylvester says with a smile on his face as he looks over at Walter. Paige is in awe of what is happening as Walter works with his team. He had mentioned that they worked with him and they all got along. But, she would not have guessed that they all were able to work together so well.

"Can you handle that?" Walter asks into the walkie talkie.

"Come on. Who rigged our whole office this morning? I'm on it." Happy's voice says coming through on the walkie talkie. Paige sends Walter a pointed look as he had told her that his company was doing fine. Having to rig up their office was not 'fine'. It explained one of the reasons that he wanted to mostly be with her at her apartment. He glances at her and at her expression he has a guilty look on his face.

"Okay, ready? Here we go. We're in." The voices crackle over the walkie talkie. The line goes silent as they wait for a response. Paige walks closer to Ralph as he looks around the diner she knows a little about what he could be doing. Most likely calculating something with what is around him.

"He doesn't even know we're here. He's wondering if those flashlights can be powered by the heat of the hand that holds them. Or he's calculating the cubic footage of the octagon clock. He thinks about anything. Everything." The man, Sylvester says. Paige nods as Walter had had this talk with her. They stay silent as Paige watches her son and assumes that Sylvester might as well be calculating something as well.

"Where the hell are your people? That kid Toby doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." The Agent says and Paige turns towards him and Walter.

"Toby grew up penniless, gambled his way through school. Even then, he got his doctorate at the age of 17. Sometimes people like us need repair before we can fit into your world." Walter says and Paige mentally congratulates him on standing up to the man that seems to have been in his past in some way.

"I know the aftermath was devastating. I did keep tabs on you." The Agent says and Paige's eyes widen. The aftermath of what?

"Seat backs and tray tables up! Those planes are as good as landed." Toby shouts walking into the diner holding something above his head.

"Endlessly patting himself on the back, the whole ride here." Happy says as she walks in behind him.

"I just want a statue of me at LAX." Toby requests handing the drive over to Walter. Walter walks quickly back over to the booth and inserts the drive and starts typing away on his computer.

"Now what?" The Agent said impatiently and Paige bristled slightly at his attitude.

"Easy as sending a file. Mr. Brooks, in a moment, you'll receive a bug-free version of the software. All you have to do is open your e-mail and click a link." Walter says typing a few more keys on his computer before seeming satisfied. His eyebrows furrowed together in question as he kept reading the script on the computer.

"Wait. The hard drive's frozen. The files are corrupted. They're useless." Walter stated hopelessly. It was the same look he had in his eyes around the time when around they had been dating for three months. He had attempted to break up with her; but she had held her ground and they ended getting into a fight. She had ended up getting him to talk to her and he opened up a little more to her.

"We took it out as carefully as we could." Toby says as he looks over at Walter.

"How'd you transport it?" Asks Walter rubbing his forehead as he figures out possible reasons.

"It was wrapped in a towel, tucked in a door console so I wouldn't drop it." Toby says as he remembers what he did.

"Was there an audio speaker in the door?" Walter asks tiredly. Paige bit her lip in trepidation as she watched the unfolding of their conversation.

"Yeah. So? What?" Toby asks as he leans against the booth.

"The magnet erased the hard drive. It's useless now." Walter says throwing his hands up in the air. Paige recognized his air of exasperation. It was one of those where he thought that he was unable to solve the problem.

"It's not my fault. I didn't know anything about magnets in car speakers." Toby says defending himself as he crosses his arms over his chest.

"You've stolen hundreds of them, Toby." Walter says under his breath and Paige's eyes widen.

"No place on Earth has what we need." Walter says as he places his head in his hands. Paige wanted to help him badly, but had no clue in that moment on how to help.

"FBI just texted. They're out, too." The Agent says walking back into the room.

"We're at less than one percent," Sylvester says timidly. Walter walks outside and the Agent follows him. She contemplates going after him, but decides to give him a moment. He always have needed some sort of little reprieve.

After a minute of leaving him alone she walks out the back way to where he was standing. The Agent was walking by as she walked towards Walter. He stood in the sunlight with his hands on his head. He looked tired, like he was not sure what to do. She needed to help him; he was not able to do this alone and he needed to know that.

"Hey, Walter. I know what's going on." Paige says as she walks up to him. He lifts his head and looks at her; she is at a loss as she watches the helpless look in his eyes.

"Actually, uh, there are not many people who really know anything and unfortunately, you're not one of them." Paige bristles at his statement, even if it is true. She has to get it through his thick skull that he can accept help.

"You're doing what Ralph does when he doesn't understand how to fix a problem. He panics and shuts down. When you don't know something, you feel like you don't know anything." She says and then takes a deep breath.

"Walter, you need to let me help you." Paige says and his gaze lingers on her eyes. He takes a step towards her as if to accept what she said. Paige knew not to approach him when he was like this; she had to let him figure it out on his own.

"You don't know how to solve the problem and you're terrified because people will die." Paige continues softly. Paige looks over to see him stiffen and her shoulders slump as she tries to figure out what she can do.

"Well, they won't die because of me." Walter states confidently and Paige looks up at him with anger present in her eyes.

"And they won't live because of you, either, because you're just giving up and walking away." Paige retorts angrily. He sighs and runs a finger through his hair. Paige hated seeing him like this as he seems as if he could easily breakdown under the stress being imposed on him.

"Don't lecture me about how people dying will make me feel. I already know!" Walter yells and Paige is taken aback by his tone. She wants to help him; yet he had always hinted to something similar to this. Something along the lines of him being the cause to people's deaths as to explain the nightmares he gets. He was stone to not tell her the details of what had happened. All she learned was that he had trusted the wrong person.

"Walter, you can always talk to me." Paige says pointedly and Walter was about to reply when she looked over and saw Ralph by the doorway. She glanced at Walter to see him looking up at the sky. She shook her head and walked over to her son.

"Hey, sweetheart. Let's go back inside, okay?" Paige walked over to Ralph and took his hand. Ralph's hand curled in hers as she led him back inside the diner. The group was whispering to each other and Paige guessed that they were running ideas between each other.

"Yes, sir, I understand. I'll draft an alert for the Emergency Broadcast System ASAP." The Agent was saying into his phone. Paige hated to think what it could mean and the full results of these actions.

"Don't hang up. Tell them there's still a chance." Walter shouted towards Cabe as he walked back in. Paige exhaled a sigh of release that her genius of a boyfriend has come up with something.

"Put a pin in that, sir. We may have something here." The Agent says before moving his phone away from his ear to listen to Walter.

"Software's on the planes. They use a duplicate copy to communicate with the tower. Now, if they took off before this morning's update, like a flight from Australia or New Zealand, they'll still have the bug-free software on board." Explains Walter as he uses various hand motions to express his point. The other geniuses catch on instantly and Paige understands what he is saying after processing it for a moment.

"Okay." Said the Agent as he processed what Walter had said.

"Klemmer Airfield is 20 minutes away. Get me there in ten, and I can download that software." Walter stated standing in front of the Agent with a stubborn look on his face. Paige had learned the depths of Walter's stubbornness whenever they have gotten into a fight about the smallest of things.

"If you're gonna shut down all the roads that lead to Klemmer Airfield, there's gonna be lots of moving parts. I still think it's the wrong play; the runways are too short there." The Agent said crossing his arms across his chest.

"It's just a low fly-by." Walter said waving his hand lightly. Paige bit her lip as she watched them, her eyes moved between them as she tried to figure out what Walter was planning to do.

"There's a neighborhood next door. If something goes wrong, you take out half a block." Argued the Agent as Paige realized the implications of what Walter was planning. It was severely dangerous and he was risking his life for it all.

"It's actually four blocks, but I won't let that happen." Walter said as Agent Gallo started to interrupt him.

"I don't know if that's going to be enough to get LAPD to set up rolling road blocks. We're talking about major roads in a major city. There are safety risks, there's procedure." Agent Gallo said as if to prove his point more. Paige could see Walter's face harden as the Agent continued.

"I know what you're doing. You're covering yourself in case of casualties." Said Walter as his voice got dangerously low. Paige's eyes wandered over to Walter; in the six months that she had known him he had never gotten this angry over anything.

"I don't put protocol over lives." Agent Gallo growled at him.

"Lives? Suddenly you're worried about lives?" Asked Walter as the Agent's face twisted into one of anger. Paige instantly wondered what had happened. He had never been straight with her on that and she respected that and didn't push him.

"We can debate the past later. Right now, if you want my help, then let me make the calls and see if I can't get this done for you. Let's go." Said Agent Gallo angrily as he walked towards some of the other Homeland Agents in the corner of the diner.

"I know he thinks he's helping, but we don't have time for bureaucracy right now." Walter whispers walking closer to his team. Paige is standing on the outskirts of being able to hear his voice as she wonders exactly Walter does as his job. She knows that in the past six months his jobs have varied whether tech support or hacking into something.

"Happy, if I hack you into the DOT, can you manipulate the traffic signals? They're on standard sequencers;" Walter said and Paige could almost see the wheels turning in his head as a plan formed.

"So you shut down the roads, we drive fast as hell, we might be able to pull this off." Happy says in response

"Toby, I need you to check the manifest for a passenger up there whose phone is still on." Instructed Walter to Toby. Toby nodded as he started to walk to walk over to the equipment.

"Walt, I got this. Don't worry." Toby says putting a hand up as if to comfort him slightly.

"I'm gonna need to upgrade my wireless antenna software to pick up the signal from the plane, so someone's gonna have to drive me there." Walter says as he walks over to his computer. Paige looks between the geniuses as she processes exactly what was happening.

"Um I don't have my license, but I'm more of a bus guy I-I understand the basic mechanics - of-of how this works," Sylvester says awkwardly and Paige pities the man.

"Sylvester. I really need you here, helping Toby. But thank you, pal." Walter says interrupting his friend. Paige's heart speeds up a little at seeing him interact that way with his team. A single idea pops into her mind, she could help them. Even if she is not a genius or on their team it would be possible for her to help them. It would be another one of the ways to connect with Ralph as she was still working at it and slowly getting better.

"Uh, driving through L. A. with nothing but green lights it's kind of always been a fantasy of mine." Paige says holding up her keys. Walter's eyes widen at her and she can see that he doesn't want her to do this at all.

"At high speed? No." Walter states brushing her off. Paige raises her eyebrow as if to challenge her and all of the times that he has challenged her in a fight she has typically won.

"Somebody's gotta drive." Paige argues and she can see Walter raise his eyebrow at her slightly.

Walter grabs her arm lightly and leads her a fair distance away from the group.

"Look at the way he grabbed her arm, it shows that he knew her before this for sure. They might even be lover-" Toby says loudly as he looks over at them before being interrupted and Happy hits his arm.

"Shut it, Toby." Walter says not even looking over at his friend.

"Come on. Ralph needs you." Walter says crossing his arms over his chest. Paige nods slightly as she had already gone over in her mind before she grabbed her keys out of her purse.

"I know that." Snaps Paige. "But this is another way of connecting with him. You said it yourself that I have to find other ways to connect with him." Paige says definitely. Walter's mouth twists as he tries to figure out a way around her words.

"Is there any other reason, Walter?" Paige asks as she crosses her arms over her chest. She knew that at some level she didn't want him to get hurt and this was his own way of saying it. She wanted him to say and admit it.

"Uh," Walter says stumbling his words. Paige raised a single eyebrow at him. His eyes shot to hers and she knew what he was conveying.

"I know," Paige says quietly and he just nods.

Paige grasps her keys in her hands once more and wordlessly walks towards her car. Walter quickly grabbed his walkie talkie before following her. Both of them were conscious of the agents lurking around the diner, and it would not be the best to discover them trying to sneak out.

They both quickly get into Paige's car and she starts the engine. She watches as Walter starts to set up his equipment. Paige quickly pulls out of the diner and can see Agent Gallo's astonished face in her rear view mirror.

"Okay, Walter, I'm tracking you on the traffic cams. They should start changing now." Happy says as Paige slowly gains speed. Her foot was pressed hard on the gas pedal and the wind was blowing in her face. The feeling was almost freeing, yet she had the feeling that she wouldn't want to drive that fast ever again.

"It's working! Hold on! We're at 100." Shouted Paige over the sound of horns honking and the wind in their faces.

"This thing doesn't have air bags." Paige adds a moment later, as to let him know of the speed. She knew that this was not the safest of moves; which must have been one of the reasons that he was relatively against her joining him.

"Well, you know, at these speeds, they're useless. Go faster." Walter instructs and Paige's hands subconsciously tighten on the wheel.

"I'm checking Sigalert; you should head south on Hilgard to Manning, then Santa Monica to Bundy. I'll get you a clear path." Happy's voice crackled through on the walkie talkie. Paige nodded, even if Happy couldn't see her.

"I think that's Agent Gallo!" Yelled Paige over the roar of the wind.

"Keep driving." Walter says not looking up from his equipment.

"I can't get the light on Barrington to change over." Said Happy and Paige's stomach fell to her feet. The light wasn't changing and if it didn't change they would most likely go headfirst into another car.

Paige's foot slammed on the brake, yet it wasn't enough. The car was not able to slow down in the allotted space of time that they had before they would be in a head on collision. Paige bit her lip to quell the scream in her throat as a car in the intersection was speeding across at the same time. Paige glanced at Walter and she knew he was calculating what to do for them to live through it.

Paige was caught in immediate surprise when a speeding SUV hit the other car head on, that she would've hit at their speed. She swerved to avoid the wreckage and was sure that shock would be plastered onto her face at the turn of events. Paige glanced back in her rearview mirror and was surprised to see Agent Gallo getting out of his car.

"What the hell was that?" Walter yelled into his walkie talkie.

"Greater good theory in practice. Now just get to that airfield and don't make me regret this!" Agent Gallo's gravelly voice said through the walkie talkie. After that Walter remained silent as she drove towards the airport.

"We're almost there." Walter stated looking down at his equipment. Paige sighed and watched the road ahead.

.

.

"This is Captain Pike, standing by." Paige heard a voice crackled through Walter's phone.

"Captain Pike, you're carrying an uncorrupted version of control tower software. Now, you need to e-mail it to me so it can be downloaded at LAX." Walter states as Paige pulls up to the airfield.

"Copy. But our onboard wireless only has a limited reach. What do you want me to do? Buzz the tower at 100 feet." Captain Pike asks. Paige sighs as she gets out of the car and follows Walter into the building.

"I should be able to grab your wireless." Walter says emotionlessly. Paige nervously picked at a loose thread on her skirt as she followed Walter.

"Where will you be?" asked Captain Pike

"We just arrived at Klemmer Airfield; we called ahead. Runway two has been cleared." Walter says as he enters the control tower.

"I'm right over Klemmer. Could be there in less than a minute." Captain Pike says before setting down the phone. Paige walks over to the window to see if she is able to see the plane from where she is standing.

"Mr. O'Brien?" An employee asked. Paige watched the interaction out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes." Walter says as he looks over at the man.

"I've got a space cleared for you up here." The man says gesturing to a cleared area. Walter sets to setting up his equipment and Paige watches half heartedly.

"Thank you." Walter states not looking up at the man or other employees around him.

"Okay. I've linked my computer up to LAX, so as soon as I get the download, they'll have it as well." Walter says looking at the others as soon as his equipment is set up. Paige looks out the window and can see the plane poking underneath the clouds.

"Here it comes." Paige says, pointing at the plane. Walter grabs the phone and lifts it to his ear.

"Captain Pike, maintain at 100 feet. I should be able to catch your Wi-Fi signal and download your software." Walter says glancing at the window and then looking back at his equipment and then continued to alternate looks.

"This is Captain Pike. Do I have confirmation? Over." Captain Pike asked, his voice crackling and Paige looked over worriedly at Walter.

"Were you able to download that software?" Captain Pike asked and there was silence on the other side. Paige bit her lip worriedly.

"No, there's too much of a speed differential between a plane and a stationary laptop. Over." said Walter tiredly; Paige knew the look in his eyes. He was about to panic and overall it worried her. Walter was strong; he just needed to know that someone had faith in him.

"Let's try again." stated Paige looking at the others as if to see her relative reasoning.

"Doing the same thing but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. It won't work." Walter said running a hand through his hair and looked irritatingly over at Paige.

"Mr. O'Brien, I've got 240 souls onboard. Please tell me there's something else you can do." said Captain Pike, his voice echoing over the walkie talkie. Paige looked over at Walter to see that his mind was indeed going over several solutions.

"I just solved the speed differential problem." stated Walter.

.

.

"Can you get that plane about eight feet off the ground?" asked Walter as he and Paige got into the Ferrari that Happy had helped them get into.

"Eight feet? What for?" asked Captain Pike incredulously.

"Can't risk missing the wireless signal again, so we're gonna have to hardwire it - into the computer." stated Walter as he started the Ferrari. Paige sighed as she realized exactly what it would entail.

"How exactly - do you plan on doing this?" asked Captain Pike and Paige bit her lip.

"We're gonna be driving" Walter said glancing at the steering wheel.

"What?" Captain Pike shouted and Paige glanced at Walter.

"Yeah. You'll only have seven seconds to receive that file." Walter stated as he revved the engine.

"Any longer, we're not gonna get this plane back up, and we will crash." Captain Pike stated and Paige paled.

"On top of us?" asked Paige, looking over at Walter. He met her eyes before turning back towards the car.

"That will not happen, most likely." Walter stated adding the second part to his sentence after a moment.

"Do it in one minute." instructed Walter as he put his foot on the gas pedal.

"Roger that." Captain Pike stated before going off of the walkie talkie.

"You, you expect me to sit in this car while a plane is right over us?" Paige asked crossing her arms over her chest while looking over at Walter.

"No, you're gonna be standing up through the sunroof." said Walter as if it was the most simple thing. Paige was stunned, standing through a sunroof on a car going a hundred miles an hour was not what she would describe as safe; it didn't help too much that it was her boyfriend that was suggesting it to her.

"You trust me right?" Walter asked carefully and Paige nodded. "I will not let anything happen to you."

Paige believed him; he wouldn't intentionally let her get hurt. Yet there was still the part of her that had sirens going because of how dangerous it was.

"You're the one that said you wanted to save everyone. This is our only chance." Walter stated and Paige nodded in agreement. He started driving faster to reach a speed where they would be able to catch the plane.

"Preparing for second approach." Crackled out of the walkie talkie. Paige focused on the laptop in her lap and tried to stop herself from hyperventilating.

"Let's hope this works." shouted Walter over the sound of the car's engine.

"You ready?" asked Walter as he saw the plane in the distance behind them. "No" Paige muttered but she had the feeling that he ignored her.

"Hit the roof panel." Walter stated and Paige looked around for the button. She soon found the button and ducked as the roof went flying off of the car. She glanced back to see the roof flying back; Paige focused on finding a semi safe way to stand against the seat to reach the plane.

The plane was getting closer to them and the cable that was being handed down was almost in reach.

"Oh, my God!" shouted Paige as the car increased speed and she could feel her stomach drop to her feet; she could see one of the co-pilots dropping out of the plane in order to reach her. Paige held a steady hand on the laptop as she slowly leaned against the seat.

"Drop the cable! Drop it now! Come on, you got to get it! Now! Reach!" instructed Walter as Paige reached for the cable. Her hand wrapped around it as she connected it with the laptop.

"I got it! Yes! I got it! Okay, it's in." Paige shouted as the software started downloading. She watched as percent by percent the software was downloading. It didn't help that during this time she was becoming more aware that a wall was getting closer and closer to them.

"What's it say?" asked Walter and at a glance at him his eyes were stuck on the road.

"It needs a few seconds." Paige replied desperately as she watched it download.

"We're running out of road!" shouted Paige as she kept alternating glancing at the laptop and to the road ahead of them. If the laptop took too much longer it was a certain death for her and Walter.

"No, hold on! Walter! Walter! It's done! Hold on! Hold on to it! It's going! Got it!" Yelled Paige as the software finished downloading, she let go of the laptop and it went flying behind them. She sat back in her seat and tried to catch her breath; she could feel the bile rising in her throat but resolved to ignore it.

Walter swerved the car as not to hit the wall in front of them; Paige was jerked roughly to the side as he stopped the car. Paige paused to catch her breath and looked over at Walter. His head was leaning back against the seat and his hands were behind his head.

.

.

"Walter." said Paige as she opened the door to let him in. She pecked his lips as he walked in; he smiled shyly at her and she shook her head lightly.

"Come in." said Paige welcoming him in.

"I know it's, uh, late. I just wanted to, um, say thank you for your help today." Walter said walking further into her apartment.

"You're welcome. Is there anything else? I doubt you would come all the way here to just say that. It would be inefficient." said Paige, joking around as she took into play one of his favorite lines to use against her. He smiled lightly at her and she thought that her joke was worth it to make him smile.

"I wanted to offer you a job. Government-funded problem solvers." said Walter and Paige instantly worried if working with Walter would cause any problems.

"Uh why? I'm-I'm not a genius, just your girlfriend." Paige said crossing her arms over her chest.

No, but you are raising one and dating one," He said to acknowledge her small dig at herself as his girlfriend.

"That takes, uh, someone smart, brave now, our work requires, uh, interaction with people.

It's not our strength." continued Walter as he looked over at Paige. She nodded along with where he was going and was in awe of what he seemed to be asking. She was slightly conflicted as it was not appropriate to date your boss, yet they were already together and he would have had to have already considered it.

"You want me to help you know what others mean." Paige asks taking a step closer to Walter. "Would it matter that we are dating?" adds Paige.

Walter shook his head. "We can be professional about it. Will you take the job?"

Paige bit her lip in thought, it would provide a better salary than the diner and she could easily pay for things for Ralph and it would help him to interact with other geniuses than Walter.

"I'll do it,"

 **A/N:** I AM SO SORRY THAT IT HAS TAKEN THIS LONG TO UPDATE. I meant to update earlier and then a bunch of crap happened of course blocking me from finishing this. I want to thank linda p for bugging me to finish this; I probably wouldn't have this done yet without them. I know that the chapter isn't the best but I just finished it and did a pretty bad job of editing it. The song is Style by Taylor Swift.

Please favorite, follow and review.

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	3. Chapter 2 Ghosts of the Past

**A Few Mistakes Ago**

 **Chapter 2: Ghosts of the Past**

 _After everything and that little black dress_

 _After everything I must confess, I need you_

 _-The Other Side of the Door, Taylor Swift_

Paige absentmindedly drew circles on Walter's chest as his arms tightened around her naked form. She felt content even with the apprehension blooming in her chest at the prospect of working with the genius's. They most likely wouldn't accept her until she proved herself and that in itself would be a daunting task.

"This won't be easy, will it?" She asked as she looked around the dark bedroom. The morning light was just peaking over the horizon and filtering into Walter's bedroom through the dark curtains that were purposely hiding them from the outside world as if they were criminals being hunted.

"No, but they'll get used to you. Once they see exactly what I saw in you," said Walter and Paige blushed and snuggled back into his chest. She fell asleep fitfully with Walter not far behind her.

.

.

"So mail arrived. Menus and paychecks." announced Walter to the group. Paige nodded absentmindedly as she took in her surroundings. She had visited the garage a few times during the day and was still soaking in the opportunity to have more free reign around her new office.

"Mo' money. Mo' problems. Or so I've heard in the rapper song." said Sylvester as he walked over.

"Well, rappers may have 99 or so problems but misplacing paychecks is not one of them." said Toby sardonically and Paige just rolled her eyes.

"LAX cleared our debt. This is our first fresh cash." said Walter happily and Paige smiled. He had a smile on his face that reached his eyes and she was happy to see that smile on his face.

"Toby, are you gonna be okay with this?" asked Walter carefully. Paige looked over to see the exchange between the two as she was interested in getting to know the people on the team. She felt little butterflies flying in her stomach at Walter's obvious caring of his teammates, or at least she thought of it that way.

"I'm way ahead of you. High stress levels triggers my gambling addictions. If my levels go up," said Toby holding his phone up as it made the sounds of a donkey braying. "See, it reminds me I'm being a jackass."

"Hell, I could do that for you." said Happy as she looked over from her work area. Paige snickered from behind her hand as she heard Happy's comment. Toby scowled at her and Paige turned back to Walter.

"Hey, seriously, what's wrong?" asked Paige as she looked over at Walter. She touched his arm lightly to draw his attention to her and he turned to her. Paige noticed the sharp look in his eyes as she asked and wondered what would have made him act that way.

"I'm fine." said Walter and Paige rolled her eyes as he looked away.

"Clearly." stated Paige. She tried to ignore the brisk way that he had just discarded her. But it still stung slightly; they had agreed to try and not keep secrets from one another. She knew that there would always be some secrets regarding his past and she would respect that.

.

.

"Cabe called." stated Walter and Paige turned towards him. "We're all going to meet the governor of California."

Paige raised her eyebrows at the thought. She had never been one to meet important figures and was interested at the thought, especially if Cabe called which meant some sort of case.

"My back-tax status with the state isn't exactly what you'd call good." stated Toby and Paige rolled her eyes.

.

.

"Come on, guys!" yelled Toby as he jumped out of the car.

"The new car rides nice." said Walter appreciatively. He had lectured her on the car she had and refused to take any of the money that he had offered her.

"Steady paycheck equals safe car for my kid." said Paige as she stepped out of the car. Walter nodded at her before getting out of the car.

"Heavy security. Way more than you'd expect for the governor." said Toby suspiciously as he looked around the property that they had pulled up at.

"Walter, why is there a van from the Center for Disease Control here?" asked Sylvester nervously as he unconsciously scratched his arm. Paige frowned worriedly, from what she already knew Sylvester would not do well in situations that might as well have a bold warning signs that warn of germs.

"I don't know." said Walter as he looked around and at the sight of Cabe he added "We'll find out pretty soon."

"Uh, they handle diseases that wipe out civilizations." said Sylvester as he ran a hand through his hair and readjusted his classes. "Diseases that have no cure."

"Good, you're here. Follow me." said Cabe motioning for them to follow him inside the house.

"Wait, why are you wearing a surgical mask around your neck? What exactly are you protecting yourself from?" asked Sylvester rapidly, as he looked at the house nervously.

"Relax. They put up a quarantine tent." said Cabe smoothly and Paige's eyes shifted between Cabe and Sylvester and from what she knew about Sylvester was that he wouldn't go near the house now.

"A quarantine tent? I will be in the car." Sylvester said swiftly walking away from the rest of the group.

"Uh, Mr. Gallo, sir? Is there a very terrible, possibly communicable disease in this home?" asked Toby until he was interrupted by the sound of a donkey braying. "Sorry. Stress levels are a tad elevated right now."

"Weird, phone's off but I still hear a donkey." muttered Happy under her breath and Paige cast a sympathetic look towards Toby, who seemed to be playing off Happy's comment.

"Today's not the day to be screwing off. You two go wait with Sylvester." said Agent Cabe Gallo, obviously irritated. Paige could feel butterflies in her stomach once more when she realized that she would be there not exactly alone with Walter. But, she was still excited to see how he would work fully and how she would be able to help Scorpion.

"There's a computer I need you to look at." Said Cabe leading the way inside the mansion. Paige followed behind Walter and marveled in their surroundings and gasped at some of the decorations she saw.

They entered a new room and Paige felt light headed at seeing a frail little girl lying in a large bed. Her hair is scattered around her pale face and she looks younger than she actually is. It felt as if her heart was breaking at the sight of the broken young girl, the thought of Ralph ever being like that caused her to feel as if tug of war was being played on her heart strings.

"That poor little girl." Murmured Paige under her breath, but she knew Walter heard it.

"Who's that kid?" asked Walter, nodding his head towards her.

"That's a need-to-know." said a man walking up to them in shaky steps. The man had blond hair and held an air of authority. Paige felt like she vaguely knew him from somewhere, but couldn't tell where.

"You know, what I need to know is exactly what's going on. Otherwise, I can't help." said Walter aggressively and Paige glanced at him out of the corner of her eye in surprise.

.

.

"Guys, this is Governor Lane." Said Cabe, introducing Paige and Walter to the man that had butted into their conversation earlier.

"This is the man who can help my daughter?" the Governor asked Cabe questioningly. Paige inwardly bristled at him underestimating Walter.

"I'm gonna need to know everything that's happening here." said Walter looking around the room as if he was calculating anything to do with it.

So governmental habits of proprietary knowledge and "need to know" Jettison that nonsense or my efforts to help your child will be hampered.

"You have to forgive Mr. O'Brien. He's brilliant but impolitic." stated Cabe and Paige hoped that the Governor would forgive Walter's blunt words. To say that he didn't know any better would make it sound as if he had been raised by wolves and that certainly wouldn't help them at all.

"Don't care what he is, long as he helps." said the Governor briskly. Paige raised an eyebrow, as she realized the magnitude of the Governors feelings on the issue.

"In here we're really not trying to hamper anyone, but if the public hears "unknown virus," it could cause panic. Especially if there's a political motivation." Added the Governor a moment later and Paige had to pause so she would be able to process all the new information that was coming her way.

"What kind of virus?" asked Walter curiously.

"She tested negative for Hanta, Rift Valley, Ebola - Eastern equine encephalitis? - Also negative. She's only positive for the common cold." said the Governor tiredly.

"The CDC has a database of the rarest infective agents in the world." Stated Walter, in what was most likely his 'caring' voice. "They're searching."

"Yeah, but while they search, Helena's kidneys, liver, lungs: all shutting down." said the Governor, rubbing his hand across his forehead.

"How long?" asked Walter indelicately. Paige wanted to slap him on the back of his head to make him see some sense. As that was exactly what not to ask a man whose daughter was dying.

"Doctors said she has" Cabe paused for a minute as if not wanting to believe what he was about to say. "Less than 24 hours."

"This is a medical problem. Why am I here?" asked Walter. Paige nearly groaned at his lack of conduct. She thought that she had made some progress with him, but it seems that in public it all had gone to hell.

"First of all, Governor, we're so sorry this is happening to you. I have a child, too, and I can't imagine how you feel. All we want to do is help." said Paige swiftly interrupting Walter. She couldn't believe how he was unable to tell how the Governor was feeling.

"Thank you. Come with me." instructed the Governor once Paige finished speaking. She thought that showing any type of emotion would help the man and then in turn help them figure out what was happening.

He led them through a hall and into a room. Paige resisted the gasp that was caught in her throat as she saw the young girl lying in her bed. The girl's hair was in clumps as she lay brokenly against the bed. A quarantine tent was around her bed and people buzzed around the room.

"We found this virus on Helena's laptop a few hours ago. Based on this, we're working on the assumption that someone made Helena sick intentionally." said the Governor pointing at his daughter's laptop that kept on repeat a message that was point blank showing the ability they had.

"Targeting you, no doubt." said Walter catching on.

"Any idea why?" asked Cabe watching them all carefully.

"Immigration reform? Three strikes? Those are my hot-button issues, but would they prompt this kind of hostility against my kid?" asked the Governor looking at Paige, Walter and Babe with visible distress.

"We're compiling all threats, past and present." said Cabe looking at the Governor. Paige glanced at Walter to see him typing on the laptop and she could see that for whatever reason he was genuinely trying to figure it out.

"The FBI, NSA, Homeland, all the top computer guys been trying to trace the sender. The source bounced around to 15 countries. We hit a wall." said Walter looking up at the rest of them.

"Agent Gallo said that you and your team were brilliant." pleaded the Governor as he stole another glance at his daughter. "That you could find out who sent it."

"All of your devices are on the same home network?" asked Walter staring at the Governor.

"Yeah."

"Any other computers have this virus?" asked Walter curiously.

"No."

"Okay, so he directed the virus to just Helena's computer." stated Walter as if trying to gather all of the facts before making a conclusion.

"Anybody else in the house sick?" asked Walter as he stole another glance at their surroundings.

"No."

"So you, your wife and your staff they've all been in her proximity?" asked Walter and Paige knew that he was forming a conclusion and whatever it was would have an impact on all of them.

"Yes." said the Governor and his face scrunched up in confusion and turned towards Walter. "What are you getting at?"

"Well, he could have taken out the whole home network, but he directed the computer virus at just your child." Said Walter and Paige started to understand what she was getting at. "I don't think it's a coincidence that no one else but Helena is ill."

"What does this mean?" asked the Governor looking accusingly at Walter. Grief lined his features and he looked as if he could easily break.

Walter walked towards the quarantine tent and Paige mentally begged him to turn around so she could talk to him.

"Give the girl some cool air. She's hot enough." said Walter roughly pulling open the curtains surrounding the bed. Paige looked around and wondered exactly what Walter was thinking. Whatever it was Paige was hoping that it would help as Walter would only take a risk if he knew or thought there was a highly likely chance that it would work.

"What are you doing? No!" yelled Governor Lane as he tried to move quickly towards Walter.

"You can't catch it." said Walter releasing a deep breath. "None of us can."

"The virus he placed on the computer is custom-built." explained Walter gesturing around them. "He did the same with your daughter, or why is no one else ill?"

"You're saying he custom-built a virus that would make just this child sick?" asked Cabe as if Walter was completely crazy. To Paige for whatever reason Walter seemed to make complete sense. It made sense that someone might try to sabotage a child to get to the parent; she knew that Ralph was one of her weaknesses.

"Yeah." said Walter, as he looked up from the laptop. "There's computer hacking, and more recently, there's bio hacking."

"Now, whoever infected the computer also infected your daughter. Until we find that person and know exactly what biological agent he used there's not gonna be any hope for a cure." said Walter as he gestured to the small girl lying helplessly in the bed.

Walter stands and looks around wildly for a moment. She recognizes that look. He is about to run. He had the same look on his face after their first time. He was going to run or something along those lines.

"Wait, wait, wait. Where are you going? You can't just drop a theory like that and leave." The Governor said putting his hands out. He looked helpless as if he couldn't function without the problem solved right away. Paige was prepared to intervene and calm him down until Walter stepped forward.

"Governor, the helplessness you feel will incline you to irrational behavior.

"So please, resist the temptation to do anything stupid, like standing in my way. Let me do my job." said Walter before walking away. Paige sighed helplessly

.

.

"I checked the AVG scanner, came up with nothing. If we can find a signature in the viral code, it'll tell us who sent it." said Sylvester.

"Meaning we have nothing." said Walter moodily.

"So far, Walt. Keep your shorts on." Happy said snapping at Walter. He lightly raised his hands as if innocent.

"Governor's had ten distinct threats since he took the office. Four of the perps are locked up, - thus leaving six." said Cabe as he flipped through some of the information they had.

"Guillermo Flacos? This is way too subtle for a Mexican drug lord.

Oh, announcing your intent via e-mail? That's too subtle? Personally, I would keep digging.

"Any on the list have computer proficiency and knowledge of biophysics?" asked Walter, glancing up at them.

"Well, that'll probably narrow our list down to zero, but we'll keep digging." said Cabe uncertainly.

"What I want to understand is how you hack into a human being." added Cabe as he watched the geniuses work. Paige's head shot up, the question had been on her lips earlier, yet she held it back figuring there would be a better time for it.

"I get your DNA from anywhere a coffee cup, a piece of gum and then I study your genetics for a deficiency say, uh, lung disease and then I harness that genetic sequence onto a cold virus and I blow it in your face." explained Walter and Paige felt herself frightened by the mere possibilities of what could happen. What type of monster would do this to a young girl?

"Toby, anything?" asked Walter looking over at him and then taking a sip of his coffee.

"I traced the computer virus' code Russia, China, Serbia. It's no wonder the government couldn't crack it. It uses none of the known building blocks." said Toby simply.

Paige stole a glance at Walter and was amazed by some of the emotions she saw in his eyes. There was few that she recognized, but recognized overall what he was feeling and what he would most likely do. He was going to lose it.

"That's where you leave it, huh? With a young girl dying." yelled Walter and then violently smashing his coffee cup. Paige felt paralyzed for a moment.

"All right, trace the IP header. Study it for patterns. Maybe that'll get us somewhere." said Walter walking away from the rest of the team.

.

.

"Don't say "I'm fine." said Paige as she entered the Loft. It looked the same as it did the night before. Everything was in its rightful place, except that Walter was sitting at his table resigned with bandages near him.

"I was gonna say "I'll live." said Walter as he looked down at his hand.

"What's eating you? You're acting irrational." said Paige taking a seat across from him. Absentmindedly she started to wrap the bandage around his hand. At another glance at him she noticed how he purposely avoided her gaze.

"Particularly challenging problems create impatience." replied Walter coldly. Paige took a deep breath, she needed time and patience to help him.

"But you were already off this morning after I took my shower. Before that I recall you wanted to do other things." said Paige lifting an eyebrow at him. His dark eyes left hers and looked at the floor, sometimes she had learned that humor or mentioning something that would make him uncomfortable did the best.

"You only became "impatient" when you saw that little girl in her bed." she added. He tried to act like he wasn't effected, but there was a small twitch by his eye that told her that she hit a blind spot.

"Yeah, she reminded me of a problem I couldn't solve." said Walter rubbing the back of his neck.

"You realize the more evasive you are, the more I'll press." said Paige raising an eyebrow at him.

"All right." said Walter, sighing loudly.

"As a child my, uh, sister got sick." said Walter slowly as if processing it himself. Paige was surprised as he hadn't mentioned once that he had a sister before that, when she tried to ask him about family he would just deflect the question and ask her something.

"She survived." Walter swallowed audibly and Paige waited patiently for him to continue. "She's fine." he added after a moment.

"Like you, all day." said Paige, looking at him questioningly.

"All right, you know what? I couldn't help her." said Walter throwing his hands up in the air, ignoring her protests as she was still fixing his bandages on his hand.

"It felt like she was being beaten, and I was handcuffed." said Walter tiredly. Paige felt her heart swell in her chest. It hurt to think of a younger Walter trying to figure out what was hurting his sister and it was just so... Walter. He viewed it as an equation and kept working instead of giving up and it made her understand more of how Walter came to be.

"I couldn't solve her problem."

Paige reached across the table and covered his good hand over his. She gave him a small smile and he tried to reciprocate.

"And that's how you felt, seeing that girl today?" asked Paige and she could feel Walter at the edge of an emotional breakthrough. Getting further than he had before in the months of work with him.

"Walter! We've got something!" yelled Sylvester. Immediately the moment ended and Paige sighed. They had been so close.

"Thank you for the bandage." said Walter standing up and kissing her cheek. She smiled briefly at him. He seemed to sense that she wanted to stay in the loft for another moment.

He walked quickly from the room and down to the other members of the team. She ran a hand through her hair and her shoulders slumped once she was sure that Walter had left the room.

She stood and looked around the loft. Paige felt as if she was missing something. What had changed? When she had awoke in Walter's arms that morning he had been fine, he seemed happy and once she had gotten out of the shower and went over to him he was different. It was as if the grim reaper had swooped in and stole all of his happiness.

Paige sighed and picked up the bandages, intent on putting them away. She carried them over to the counter and put the bandages into their drawers. She glanced up and saw an open letter lying on the table. Paige knew that it was none of her business, but she couldn't help but be curious. What type of letters were sent to Walter?

The white paper was smooth beneath her finger tips and read.

.

.

Her steps seemed to not distract the team from their work and she was thankful. Flashes of what she had read kept going over in her mind. The fact that his sister was still sick got to her, especially because he had said that she was over it. It only hurt because she had hoped that he would be able to tell her the whole story to things instead of parts of it.

Paige tried to put the thoughts out of her mind and focus on the tasks of saving the Governor's daughter. She heard them start to figure out where the email could have come from. Slowly, she moved by the members of the team to listen in and see their train of thought.

"You see that prefix?" said Walter pointing at the screen. "I know the place that uses this trick to mask their e-mail origins."

Paige looked at him with hope. They needed to find a way to help this girl. There had to be a way that they could save her. They were damn geniuses that should at least lead them to some sort of lead and save the young girl.

"The sophistication of the e-mail sent to the governor's daughter stamps of this place." said Walter knowingly as he gestured carelessly. "It's a known hacker petri dish." said Walter and Paige tried to process what he had said. She only partially understood what Walter had said and was almost used to understanding only most of what he said.

.

.

"Hey! Kill the music! Homeland Security! I'm looking for the scumbag that sent the e-mail virus to the governor's daughter." yelled Cabe over the music of the spotty place that they had traced the email to. The music had been playing so loud that they could hear it before they entered. The people were strewn all over the place, but all of them were working on some type of computer program.

"That greaseball right there." said Toby nodding towards a man in the middle of the first row. He had dark eyes and dark hair that went down to his chin. "His wide eyes and twitching hands go beyond the standard for ten cans of Mountain Dew."

The man stood slowly and Paige didn't notice Walter leaving her side. The man pushed in his chair and continued walking as if he would easily be able to get to the exit.

"You." yelled Cabe pointing at the man. "Don't move."

Out of seemingly nowhere, there was Walter sprinting across the room and tackling the man to the floor. Paige gasped in surprise and looked at the man and Walter on the floor. Where the hell had that came from? Walter's eyes met hers for a moment before they were drawn back to the perp.

"Since when does Walter get physical?" whispered Paige to Sylvester. He glanced at her with nervousness lighting up his eyes.

"Um Never."

.

.

"Got the job on Craigslist. I never even met the client." said the man as he sat in a chair in the Garage. He groaned and gingerly ran a hand over his ribs. "I think he broke some ribs."

"Refocus, or I'll break the rest of them." threatened Cabe, glaring at the young man.

"How were you paid?" asked Cabe staring at the man with distaste. Paige glanced over at Walter and noticed a look in his eyes that was akin to hatred and Paige could only possibly worry about him.

"Cash, to my P.O. Box."

"Great. Untraceable." muttered Walter.

"I didn't know about any sick kid. I just sent a few anonymous e-mails, and I pocketed three grand." said the man casually.

"Three e-mails? More than one?" asked Cabe in disbelief. Paige felt as if her feet had dropped beneath her. Whoever the psychopath was that decided to poison children was certainly a twisted person.

"I sent four total." said the man looking at them confused. "All the same "It's your fault she's sick."

"So, there are more victims?"

Paige sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It was going to be a long day.

.

.

"They're all as sick as your daughter. Sons and daughters of Dwight Carrington, Victoria Cooper, and John Tuttle." informed Walter. Paige sat to the side and waited for their call to end. She knew that this case was getting to Walter and she wanted to be able to help him.

"Wait, I know them." interrupted the Governor.

"You were all employees of Vlaxco Pharmaceuticals in 2008." said Walter simply and waited for no reaction. Paige bit her lip as she watched the interaction.

"That's before I went into politics. I only worked there for a year in risk management." Said Governor Lane

"There's a drug called Trexicane. You all worked on its development. Trexicane had promise as a cure for SMA it's spinal muscular atrophy. It causes your muscles to waste away until you can't breathe anymore. The clinical trial was going really well until Vlaxco pulled the plug." explained Walter.

"Yeah, it also worked well on asthma. It was redeveloped solely for asthma." added the Governor.

"Way more profit, huh? Left all the SMA sufferers out in the cold." said Walter angrily. His eyes were flashing and Paige was amazed at what she saw. The effect of his sister impacted him far greater than he claimed.

"I spent months fielding their angry phone calls. I hated the job." defended Governor Lane. "But how it this related to Helena?"

"We think that whoever attacked Helena and these other children must be someone who suffered from SMA." explained Walter simply Paige crossed her arms over her chest.

"And they're trying to make us suffer, too? What kind of mind thinks this way?" asked the Governor. It tore at Paige to see how the Governor felt and she hated that there was even people like that.

"Well, the kind that sends taunting e-mails alongside his deadly disease." replied Toby sarcastically. Paige rolled her eyes at the obvious answer. They needed to find something or else the children would die. And it killed Paige to even imagine Ralph that way, she would most likely do anything to save him if he was in any sort of danger.

"So, someone in enough psychological pain to not care about how stupid that is from a criminal standpoint."

"Okay, is this headed towards ransom?" interrupted the Governor, his face looking at all of theirs though the screen.

"More likely, like his experience with Trexicane, he's saying there is a cure out there, you just can't have it." said Toby and Paige went through the facts in her mind. Whoever it was, was suffering and what they were doing was trying to ease their pain and to any sane person it would be obvious that this method wouldn't help. But what would have to happen to a person to cause them to want to hurt people this much?

"This person would need high scientific aptitude and access to cutting-edge genetic sequencers." said Walter running a hand through his curly hair. Her eyes followed his hand and when she realized what she was doing she tore her gaze away. Toby caught her eye and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I got thousands of complaints after the trial ended." said the Governor and Walter nodded. His eyes glanced over each team member and stayed on her for a fraction of a second longer than anyone else.

"Our best bet at finding someone that angry enough to infect your daughter and three other children is in the drug-trial records." said Cabe, the Governor nodded for a moment.

"None of the other families work at Vlaxco anymore." said The Governor, getting more and more distressed with each question or statement.

"You're the governor." said Walter, ignoring how Cabe rolled his eyes at the statement. "Convince Vlaxco to hand them over."

.

.

"Where are Cabe and Sylvester?" asked Paige glancing around the Garage. Toby, Sylvester and Cabe had went to convince Vlaxco to give them the records. "You haven't eaten today."

Walter sighed and looked at her as if he didn't need to worry about eating. She placed a hand on his arm and he down at her. Something in his eyes seemed to state that he wouldn't give in.

"If you don't take care of yourself, then you can't help anyone else." said Paige. He shook off her arm and walked back to his desk.

Paige huffed and felt her anger rising. Why the hell couldn't he listen to her? Couldn't he see that she was trying to do the best for him?

"Are you barking at me now? I'm here to help you guys." said Paige, her voice filled with annoyance. Walter seemed to stiffen at her tone. He turned around slowly and looked her up and down. She raised an eyebrow at him. Walter glanced both ways seeming to make sure that Happy was off somewhere else in the Garage.

Walter only stopped once he was in front of her. He looked awkwardly at her and Paige stood absolutely still, letting him make the first move.

"I, uh" started Walter as he rubbed the back of his neck. A nervous tick that he did whenever he was in an uncomfortable emotion requiring situation.

"I need to uh get this um solved." said Walter. She got what he was trying to say. He wanted to get this solved for his sister, and would do just about anything to solve it.

Paige sighed and her shoulders slumped slightly. Walter placed his hands on her upper arms as if he knew that she was just worried about him.

"Be safe?" asked Paige, looking up at him; her brown eyes filled with hope. Walter nodded and then planted a soft kiss on her lips. She raised her arms and wrapped them around his neck as his hands shifted towards her waist.

The loud slamming of the door caused them to jolt apart. Walter walked back over to his desk, straightening his shirt. Paige took measured steps towards her desk and ran a hand through her hair and tried to smooth her shirt and calm her racing heart.

"Hey, when are we getting the Vlaxco records?" asked Walter as soon as Cabe, Sylvester and Toby were in sight.

"Vlaxco says they're not gonna give them to us, yet. They want to help, but their lawyers are complaining about breaking patient confidentiality with a politician." said Cabe tiredly.

"They say it'll take 12 hours to get us access." said Sylvester pushing his glasses back up his nose.

"Walter, I saw the governor's daughter, she doesn't have 12 hours." said Toby sympathetically. Paige was sure that she just felt her heart crack. They needed to do something and with how Walter was acting whatever they were going to do was not going to be exactly legal.

"Kid's dying, and they're stonewalling." said Walter, his eyes getting darker as the seconds passed.

"Bastards won't budge." muttered Cabe underneath his breath but loud enough for Paige to hear him.

"What about a court order? How hard did you push them, Cabe?" asked Walter, his eyes swiveling to Cabe.

"You know me. I tried as hard as I could." said Cabe, taking Walter's silent challenge.

"I've been trying to hack Vlaxco's records, but all confidential drug trials are kept on an air-gapped system." said Sylvester and Paige felt bad that she hadn't noticed that he had moved to his desk.

"That means not connected to the Web. We can't get it." said Sylvester rubbing a hand along his forehead.

"If I had another coffee cup in my hand right now, I'd smash it." said Walter, flexing the hand that still had bandages on it.

"I don't think I'd blame you." mumbled Paige and she knew that Walter heard her. A small smile lit up his face for a moment before turning blank once more.

"Cabe." said Walter trying to get the Homeland Agent's attention.

"Hmm." Cabe replied absentmindedly.

"Call the governor." said Walter, pausing for a moment when Cabe looked at him curiously. "Ask if Vlaxco keeps hard copies of the study files."

"Why am I asking?" asked Cabe.

"We're gonna break in."

.

.

"I understand that we need to get all the patients for the Vlaxco drug trial. I get that that is where we're going to find the person who keeps making these kids sick. But I think I would be better suited for an advisory role" stuttered Sylvester as he tried to get out of his role in stealing the drug files.

"Sylvester, if Cabe gets caught, it's federal time." said Walter calmly to placate Walter. "If Paige gets caught, she loses Ralph. Happy and Toby are the distraction."

"I could be the distraction." offered Sylvester almost desperately.

"N-N-No, you need to memorize the files." said Walter placing his hands on Sly's chest as if to stop him from running away. "No one else can do that."

"It's over a hundred pages long." said Sly uncertainty and Paige silently felt for the man, yet she still knew that he would be able to do it.

"I'm gonna be reading the layout and guiding you through the building, okay?" said Walter reassuringly in a voice that Paige was sure would be able to melt her if he tried.

"Okay." said Sly exhaling loudly.

.

.

"Governor, We may have some good news for you here in awhile. It's an involved operation, I'll run it down for you later." said Cabe into the phone and Paige leaned against her chair and released a breath. She closed her eyes for a moment and pictured the young girl frail against the large bed, helpless to whatever was about to come.

"My thoughts and prayers are with you, Governor. How is she?"

Cabe's words jostle her from her daydream and tries to calm the bile starting to rise in her throat.

"She's holding on as best she can." came the crackled reply.

Paige's mind whirled as she thought about comparing the young girl to what she knew about Walter's sister.

"Walter lied to me earlier about his sister. Said she'd gotten over a childhood illness, but I saw a letter that said she's in a care facility battling MS." whispered Paige to Sylvester. She knew that Walter was close with Sylvester and if her had to tell any of the Scorpion members she was sure that it would be Sylvester.

"He doesn't talk about her much." said Sylvester quietly.

"I know, but when he's reminded of her, he smashes things and tackles people and does daytime robberies." said Paige, as that certainly was not a normal Walter.

"I'm just trying to give him as much space as I can." explained Sylvester. Their small conversations stopped as they saw that Walter had stood and was about to speak to all of them.

"Here's your earpiece." said Walter handing the earpieces to those around him.

"The laboratories have disease samples, Walter. Like the plague. They have the actual plague." said Sylvester trying to let Walter see the point of what a terrible idea it would be to have him enter the building.

"Sylvester, you're not going near the biohazard lab. I'm gonna be talking you through the whole way." said Walter soothingly and Paige inwardly smiled. That Walter was _her_ Walter.

"Okay, you guys ready?" asked Cabe looking around at all of them. They all nodded and started moving towards their designated spots.

.

.

Paige, Walter and Cabe sat in the sunlight listening through their coms to what was happening to Toby, Happy and Sylvester.

Paige saw Walter watching the security cameras as the man walked back into the building. She held her breath as she knew that Sylvester would soon be discovered and hoped that the moment would never come. He would have a harder time once he knew that people were after him, but Paige had faith in the man and believed that he could do it.

"Security's been alerted." said Walter as he watched the security feed. "They are coming toward the file room."

"Okay. All done." said Sylvester as Paige heard the sounds of him starting to put the boxes and folders away.

"Now, you can get out through the doors in the back." said Walter. "To your left."

Paige watched the cameras and gasped when she saw the way out. It was through a biohazard room, one of the absolute worse ways for Sylvester to get through.

"Walter, you said no biohazard." said Sylvester and Paige could hear Sylvester's heavy breathing and the apprehension in his tone.

"You have to." said Walter, tonelessly.

"Anthrax!" exclaimed Sylvester as if that would convince them all to come up with an alternate route for him. "Last year the CDC exposed 86 of their own people to anthrax. Walter, there could be anthrax back there."

"Listen to me, you have no other way out." said Walter calmly.

"Walter, there's got to be" Sylvester pauses and Paige looks at the security camera to see the door bang open. "Walter!" yelled Sylvester before running through the door.

"We see you on the security cam."

"I am in a dirty room, Walter." said Sylvester, obviously scared and disgusted of his surroundings.

"Head out the east side door." instructed Walter. "Do you see it?"

"Yes."

"Now, there's a service hall on the other side. Head down there to the exit, where we'll be waiting for you." finished Walter. The three members of Scorpion that were watching the security cameras watched steadily as their friend moved through the halls working to escape the building.

"Sylvester, pick up the pace, pal." said Walter in what he was most likely hoping was a supporting voice. Paige sighed silently as she knew that pushing Sylvester in this situation would only end badly for all of them.

"I don't know if you can push him too hard here, Walter." said Paige uncertainly.

"This is my worst nightmare." muttered Sylvester.

"Oh Guards are getting closer, Sylvester." warned Walter, as his eyes flashed with something, but Paige wasn't sure what.

"I can't touch that handle." said Sylvester stubbornly and Paige watched curiously.

"Logically, it's probably one of the cleanest handles in the world. Much better than a public bathroom." said Walter, and Paige would have smiled if she wasn't so worried for Sylvester to get out of there. The only bright side was that Walter was acting a little more human.

"I don't touch those either!" exclaimed Sylvester watching the door.

"Open the damn door, because if you think this lab's dirty, wait until you're in a prison cell, which is where they will take you if you don't open the door." said Walter angrily.

"No."

"Come on, Sylvester. Get the hell out of there, now." Walter nearly yelled. It saddened Paige to see Walter get that worked up, except he needed a different approach with Sylvester.

"You cannot be impatient with him." said Paige sharply towards Walter and he recoiled as if burnt.

"Sylvester it's Paige." she said taking a deep breath. "What if you take off your sweater and put it around your hand?" offered Paige and held her breath as she waited for an answer.

"What kind of deterrent against a lethal spore is a poly-cotton blend?" asked Sylvester and Paige rolled her eyes as she tried to think of a way that might help him.

"Think of something else." said Paige, pausing for a moment. "Um so you got a paycheck today."

"What are you going to do with your money?" asked Paige watching the security cameras.

"Get rid of it. Money makes me nervous." stuttered Sylvester.

"Okay, then close your eyes and get rid of it." said Paige, a small smile lit up her face at the idea. At least she was making progress with him and he would be able to get out of there.

"Okay." agreed Sylvester.

"You need to hand over the money." said Paige and she waited a moment to make sure that Sylvester would be ready.

"All right." Sylvester placed his hand on the door knob, with his eyes closed and steadying breaths.

"Pull down and run like hell!" said Paige and sighed in relief when she saw that he made it through.

.

.

"So, we have 50 names here. One of them is our biohacker." said Cabe as he looked at the long list of names.

"How do we narrow it down?" asked Paige as she looked hopelessly around them.

"Our bad guy's gotten kids sick and made sure the parents knew it was done intentionally. That's a real angry dude." said Toby as he walked them through his process. "Take it from someone who has dropped a fortune at games of chance: nothing makes the psyche more vindictive than loss."

"It's primal; through vengeance, humans wrongly believe they can be made whole again." added Toby as understanding was firmly placed on each person's face. "We need to find whoever lost the most from this drug not being approved."

"So, 20 test subjects showed no improvement from the drugs. So they didn't really lose anything from being part of the trial. They entered sick, they left sick." said Cabe, setting aside the twenty names that were deemed not the killer.

"We're down to 30." said Paige looking at the rest of the names.

"Same with those who got the placebo their situation didn't change. They might have been disappointed they didn't get the real drug, but that's not loss." said Toby moving those papers.

"Five died since the trial ended. They're all out." said Cabe setting aside those five papers.

"Okay, here's where we get down to the nitty-gritty." said Toby running his hands together, looking over the other papers.

"The guys left have all suffered loss. All would have improved with the Trexicane drug." said Walter as he squinted at all of the names.

"Benjamin Carlisle, maybe? entrepreneur making six figures." said Toby flipping through the file. When he started the study, he was engaged world on a string."

"Where's he now?" asked Happy crossing her arms over her chest.

"Begging for charity for his treatment, blogging pretty angrily regarding his degenerating condition and no longer engaged. If I lost a fiance to a disease that could have been cured, I'd consider revenge." said Toby.

"That's not the guy." said Cabe pausing as he looked back up at the group. "This is. Robert Richter. Single dad. According to this, his child responded well to the meds but died after the drug trial was scrapped. He lost more than anyone."

"You're basing this purely on emotion." said Walter accusingly and Paige wished that in high stress situations such as those that he could consider the possibility of emotion being a cause.

"There's entire sections of jurisprudence based on crimes of passion. Emotion is as good as any of them." said Cabe and Paige could tell there was something that he was not telling any of them.

"Guys? There's a Robert Richter that works at Venice College of Science. And he is a microbiology professor." said Sylvester from his computer.

.

.

"Don't celebrate just yet. There's another sequence here. There's a fifth target." said Walter and Paige felt her blood run cold. She wished that he could only be joking and it would be cruel to joke on something as serious as this.

"Fifth target?" asked Paige bewildered. How sick was this man? What kind of man deliberately poisoned children?

"That spam creep said he only sent four e-mail viruses." Said Toby curiously as Walter ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, maybe this guy didn't get an e-mail 'cause he's special to Richter." said Happy as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Special how?" asked Sylvester as he scanned the room like the answer would pop out before his eyes.

"This sequence also appears in a file in Richter's laptop referring to it, it's the governor." said Walter taking a deep breath. Paige held in her gasp and ran a hand through her hair.

"So, the last one is Governor Lane." Said Cabe looking at all of them as if to see what the next plan would be.

"But the sequence is different from the others. The sequence targets a potassium channel in the heart, killing the person instantly." said Walter hurriedly as if sensing the possible urgency of the situation.

Cabe quickly pulled out his phone and the geniuses and Paige stood in silence as they waited for Cabe to give them the results of the Governor's current condition.

The team waited with baited breath for Cabe's answer. As if in slow motion for a cheesy movie Cabe finished his call to the Governor's house.

"He's not at his house. His wife said he ditched security, went out the back. They don't know where he went." said Cabe looking at the team, ranging from Sylvester's wide eyes, Toby's watching the exchanges as if trying to figure out a suitable answer while Walter and Happy's faces were blank taking in the information.

"The only thing that can keep a man away from his dying child is if he thinks he can make her better." added Cabe, seeming almost regretful as he said it.

"Richter called him." stated Walter as he lifted a hand. "Promised him an antidote if the governor would meet with him and just hear him out."

"He's not gonna give the governor an antidote." said Toby after a moment. "He's gonna give him the virus."

"It's not just gonna make him suffer. It's gonna stop the governor's heart within seconds." said Walter.

Paige felt her heart plummet to her feet. The Governor didn't deserve to die; he was just worried about his daughter. Like any parent would be, she would do the same thing if Ralph was on the line.

"Why the hell isn't he answering his cell phone?" asked Toby angrily as he threw his phone down.

"It's not on and even if it were, he wouldn't answer." said Walter stoically.

"Checking GPS. We'll track him soon." said Cabe reassuringly, though Paige felt as if he was trying to reassure himself as well.

"I got Richter's cell records." yelled Happy. Last call was to Governor Lane,"

"I warned the governor about irrational behavior. I told him not to do anything stupid." said Walter, huffing loudly. Paige knew that he didn't understand average human behavior,

"Got him! Got the governor." yelled Happy. "He's at Marina Beach Plaza."

"Really? Well, then we got a problem, 'cause so is Richter." said Toby and then the group broke into chaos.

.

.

"Lower level's clear." came a women's voice over a radio. Paige sighed, they needed to find Governor Lane and Richter, preferably both alive.

"Think about how this would go down. He sees the police and knows it's got to happen fast but private." analyzed Toby.

"Toby, anything?" asked Walter. Paige walked quickly beside Walter and looked every way for the Governor or Richter.

"He wouldn't wait in the open. Not with all the police. Someplace in here, but someplace quiet. Side hallways maybe." said Toby in response.

"I found Richter!" yelled Walter into the com and Paige and he ran as fast as they could towards

"We're on our way." came Cabe's voice over the comm.

"He's moving towards the target."

"I got eyes on him!" said Walter as he ran closer. Paige was right behind him, running as fast as she could. Her breath was coming in fast spurts as she ran.

"Cabe, if he even gets close, Governor Lane is dead!" warned Sylvester.

"Homeland Security! Don't move!" yelled Cabe. Richter tried to shoot the aerosol at the Governor before he was tackled to the ground.

"He expelled the virus!"

"It'll be aerosolized in ten seconds! Based on where the governor is standing, the interior wind patterns and s-scattergrams! Now, you have seven seconds." yelled Sylvester. Paige tore her gaze towards Walter who was moving towards a fire sprinkler, but grabbing supplies along the way.

"What are you doing?" asked Paige as she watched Walter.

"Making it rain." replied Walter.

"Two seconds, Walter!" Sylvester nearly screamed.

Walter activated the sprinklers and water rained down on all of them. Paige sighed in relief. Governor Lane was still alive. She glanced at Walter to see the water soaking through his shirt and he was smiling in success. If she had looked at him a moment longer she would have seen how his gaze lingered on her chest, where the water had soaked through.

"How do we know this worked?" asked Sylvester, his nervousness leaking through the coms.

"Well, if it didn't, he'd be dead by now." said Walter simply.

"He said he had an antidote!" Paige heard the Governor explain to an irate Cabe.

"No, sir. We already sent the antidote for your daughter. He was trying to kill you." said Cabe and the Governor gasped in surprise.

.

.

"Agent Gallo, she's gonna be fine." said the Governor and Paige's shoulders slumped in relief.

"So glad to hear it, Governor. I'll tell my team." said Cabe over the phone.

"The antidote the CDC synthesized is working. Helena's fever broke. We're getting reports of the same from the other victims." Cabe told the team and concurrent sighs of relief was heard from each member of the team.

.

.

Paige laid the blanket down on the roof of the Garage and glanced up at the stars above. The stars were gleaming above her and in that moment everything felt strangely right.

Walter and Ralph were walking up the stairs together, with the sounds of their chatter echoing behind them and Ralph was carrying his new telescope. She smiled at them as they walked in and Walter smiled back while Ralph was too focused on reading the instructions on the box of his telescope.

Walter walked over to her and kissed her cheek while Ralph walked over five yards from them and started setting up his telescope. Paige smiled lightly at Walter and he helped her smooth out the blanket on the ground. They sat side by side on the blanket and reveled in what they knew would be short lived silence.

Paige's finger intertwined with Walter's and let a sigh of relief escape.

"Sometimes it's okay to admit you don't have all the answers." Paige accidentally blurted out and immediately covered her mouth with her hand. She stole a quick glance at him and was relieved to see that he wasn't mad at her in any way.

Paige immediately felt bad and hoped that he hadn't been able to tell what she had been thinking about. As she had been thinking about his sister, and the few times she had heard of her it was always on a level of adoration.

"You know about my sister, don't you? How she's still sick?" asked Walter carefully. Paige was almost sure that she felt her gut twisting as he asked his questions. For some reason it also pleased her that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"It's not really my business." said Paige uncertainly as if to slightly pull away from him.

There is a pregnant pause as it is obvious that Walter was trying to form his answer. "It is." Said Walter simply and Paige didn't feel like going against him. She was drained and just wanted to relax with her boyfriend and son.

"For me, my mind every problem has a solution." started Walter and Paige nodded for him to continue. "There must be a solution for her."

He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath.

"I should never have yelled at you earlier." said Walter. "I just, um kept thinking of my sister." he finished sheepishly.

"That girl would've died today without you." said Paige reassuringly, bumping his shoulder with hers.

"Without us." said Walter.

Paige leaned over and kissed him. Not worrying about the future, that her son was only yards away from them and that a certain behaviorist was able to see them.

 **A/N: I am so sorry that it has been almost three months since I updated. But if it helps this chapter is a bit longer than the previous. I want to thank all those that had reviewed on the previous chapter, it meant a lot to me. If there is anything specific that any of you want to happen leave it in a review or PM me. Just remember the more reviews I get the faster I'll update. And how would you guys feel about me writing a prequel to this?**

 **Please Favorite, Follow and Review.**

 **Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.**


	4. Chapter 3 Interfering

**A Few Mistakes Ago**

 **Chapter 3: Interfering**

 _I'll pick your feet up off of the ground_

 _And never ever let you down,_

 _-Grade 8, Ed Sheeran_

Paige was pouring herself a cup of coffee in the kitchen of the Garage. The rest of the team had taken to betting on what some perp was doing. She thought it was silly, but didn't let the rest of the team know that, there would be several protests and she didn't feel like getting in a fight with them. There was just about no way to win a fight with a genius, they always thought of a loophole. She set the coffee down and picked up her cup. She took a sip and sighed, the sound of footsteps entering the kitchen surprised her. She thought that the rest of the team had been busy.

She looked up to see Walter walking in. She smiled at him, genuinely happy that it was him rather than any other member of their team.

"Hey," said Paige. "You want some coffee?"

"Sure." said Walter as he walked over to where she was standing. He poured himself a cup of coffee and took a sip. He leaned against the counter next to her. She leaned against him slightly as they heard the sounds of the team betting.

He moved his arm so it was resting lightly on her waist as they stood there in silence. Paige was surprised by his action as when the rest of the team was at the Garage he didn't touch her. It was a silent rule and Paige went along with it. She sensed that he wanted to say something, but as she had learned with him was that it was better to give him time to say whatever it was.

"I think we should tell the team we're dating." said Walter quickly. Paige nodded, she agreed, she thought they should have been told before she was hired.

"We should." confirmed Paige. She glanced over at him to see that he had set down his cup on the counter. She looked up at him and wondered how her life had gotten to where it was then. She used to be just a waitress and a single mother to Ralph, but now she was working in life threatening situations and had a boyfriend that didn't go running off at the fact that she had a kid. In fact, she was sure that Walter loved Ralph and it warmed her hear considerably.

He leaned down and quickly pecked her cheek. A smile found its way on her face; he hated PDA so much it was almost funny. But, she was just happy that he was willing to do that.

They were both so wrapped up in their thinking that they didn't hear footsteps approaching the kitchen.

"What's going on here?" said Toby and Walter's arm quickly pulled away from her waist. Paige mentally cursed the shrink, and Walter seemed to be mentally retreating away from her. She sighed, if he had wanted to tell the team this would make it even harder.

"Not a word." said Walter briskly to Toby before walking quickly towards where the others were waiting in the garage. "Anyways don't you have some analyzing to do?" he asked at the last moment before he went to strike up a conversation with Sly.

"Ms. Dineen," said Toby, raising an eyebrow. "Is it wrong to assume you are dating our illustrious boss?"

Paige raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't know you had such a high vocabulary." said Paige hoping to change the subject.

"Don't try to change the subject on me." said Toby wagging his finger at her like she was a dog. "I can tell by the way that your pupils dilate when you look at him you're in love with him. But I'm guessing that he doesn't know."

Paige was stunned by Toby's shrinking of her. She didn't know how to respond, she could easily deny it, but he would know if she was lying. Damn it.

He just smiled at her cheekily. She glared at him and he held his hands up, as if innocent. She continued her glare as she stalked away back to where the rest of the group was. She saw that Walter seemed to be trying to get something out of Cabe. Paige walked over near Sylvester and sat on her desk to listen to the conversation.

"Maybe it's time that we got some publicity on this?" asked Walter hopefully.

"Not likely." said Cabe honestly. "It's hush-hush."

"Ah, it's always hush-hush, huh?"

"It's the nature of the governmental beast." said Toby as he approached the group. He winked at Paige and she glared back at him.

It was then that Paige noticed the suitcase on Walter's desk. He had mentioned something about a job very briefly, but she had been thinking about more entertaining things at the time.

"Going away?" asked Cabe as he eyed the suitcase.

"Yeah, we took a private job." said Walter; he seemed to take pleasure in the surprise on Cabe's face.

"A Vegas casino the Crimson. They've been losing money on their high-roller blackjack tables. They just want an analysis. Same-day trip." added Walter simply. Paige crossed her arms over her chest; if she knew this team at all it seemed that their jobs always got more dangerous than what they were originally going to be.

"Can I have a word with you, in private?" Cabe asked Walter. They stepped away from earshot and Paige watched as Walter seemed to get more and more annoyed.

He eventually stormed away from Cabe and stopped at his desk to gather a few things. She would guess that Cabe had told him not to go. To her it was simple; since Cabe had showed up he had been looking at him like she had once looked at her father. Walter just wanted to prove himself.

.

.

"Tick-tock, people! We're burning daylight here!" said Toby enthusiastically, as he walked quickly around the Garage. "Hey, Diana Ross, they have hand soap there." he said to Sylvester

"Not anti-bacterial." Sylvester muttered under his breath.

"Toby, I need you to run a point on casino employee background checks, from the garage." said Walter as he threw items into his bag. Paige immediately saw through what Walter was trying to do. He wanted Toby to stay and Paige partially hoped it was because he cared for his friend's wellbeing. But, Paige knew the way Walter's mind worked, he was worried about his company.

"From the garage at the Crimson?" asked Toby as he looked up at Walter. Walter met his eyes and Paige crossed her arms over her chest. This wasn't going to end well between the two men.

"No, this garage." said Walter staunchly. Paige sighed and ran a hand across her forehead; it seemed that Sly understood exactly what was happening.

"I'm sorry for a second that sounded like you were saying I can't go to Vegas." Toby said, his tone proving that he was figuring what Walter was saying. Paige would have thought that he would have figured out what Walter was going to say when he walked over.

"I'm telling you I need you here." said Walter stubbornly.

"Guys," said Paige as she tried to intervene, she didn't need a fight to break out between the groups.

"This is a private job, Cabe's not involved so I am the boss, and I don't want anything to possibly jeopardize our contract."

Paige sighed annoyed as her attempt at trying to get them to stop failed and being interrupted by her own boyfriend. If they were going to act like children then she was going to let them figure this out on their own for once.

"Ohoh, me being involved jeopardizes the gig? I'm pretty sure I know another thing about you being involved with-" started Toby before he was interrupted by Sylvester.

Paige's glare could have easily caused Toby to melt. He avoided her stare and chose to look over at Sylvester. She stole a quick glance over at Walter to see that he was almost seething.

"I'll stay."

"No you want to avoid the flight," Walter said to Sylvester before turning back to Toby. "Your gambling is a liability. You will become distracted in Vegas, and we need to put our best foot forward."

"Walter, come on you waited till the last minute to tell him about this?" said Paige as she ran a hand through her hair. She was annoyed, and he didn't seem to be listening to anyone else.

"I knew this would happen." Toby said under his breath.

"This job is a big deal for us." said Walter firmly as he stared at Toby. Paige sighed and wondered how the team could be so blind sometimes.

"It's a big deal for all of us. Sylvester doesn't want to fly," she said nodding towards Sylvester. "I'm anxious as hell about leaving Ralph with a sitter while I'm in a different state you are worried about Toby." Paige looked between the two men and hoped that they would see reason.

"We're all anxious. But we're all going as a team, okay?" said Paige with a sense of finality in her tone. She looked at each team member daring any of them to say something against her. When she met Walter's eyes all she saw was burning determination.

"Fine. You know what? You can be the one who gives him a loan at the craps table." said Walter before he stormed away from the team.

Paige tried to ignore the slight stab of pain at his words and resisted the urge to follow him and get him to realize exactly what he was feeling. She internally groaned and turned around to walk over to her desk. She met Toby's eyes for a brief moment and it seemed that he was willing to keep their secret for whatever reason.

.

.

Paige openly stared at the building they had just entered. It was one of the most marvelous buildings she had ever been in. The high structured ceilings, she ignored the sounds of gambling and focused on the positives of the casino. Such as how well her boyfriend looked in his button up shirt.

"Oh, do you hear that? Do you know what that sound is?" asked Toby as he sighed in awe.

"Daddy losing the mortgage payment?" asked Happy sarcastically. Paige smirked slightly at the comment.

"The sound of money, soon to be my money." said Toby filled with confidence.

"You know they have magic shows here. Maybe we can go see one." interrupted Sly, his voice high as he looked around the hotel eagerly.

"Ugh." scoffed Toby. "I'm not going to go anywhere with you in that shirt."

"I can't help it if flying makes me sick." said Sylvester sheepishly and Paige's mind thought of the past hour of Sly getting sick. She shuddered slightly and focused on the small problem.

"That shirt makes me sick." said Happy as she walked from behind Sly. Paige rolled her eyes at how childish they were being, she snuck a look at Walter to see his eyes shifting around the room.

"Oh, when we're done, I am going to make my own magic at the card tables." said Toby running his hands together as he thought of all the possible money he could win.

"You wanna bet?" asked Walter, turning around. "I'll give you a bet: You resist gambling while you're here, I will give you my paycheck for this job. But if you make a single wager, I will get yours."

Paige sighed.

"Yeah, you think you're smart betting me I won't bet. Mm! I'm in, 'cause the only thing sweeter than winning cash will be winning it from you. We're on."

"Mr. O'Brien?" came a feminine voice from their right. Walter turned around to face the woman.

"Yes." said Walter hesitantly.

"Renee Connelly. We spoke on the phone."

"Oh, hi." said Walter awkwardly. "Nice to meet you."

"Uh, this is my team" said Walter motioning over to them. Paige sighed and knew she would have to work with him on having normal conversations.

"We're excited to get started."

"We're excited to have you." Ms. Connelly started leading them through the hotel. "My father Bob was very impressed by your proposal."

"Specifically, your statistical game theory and analysis of behavioral patterns. Now, we're really hoping you can help us find out why our highest-take tables are down 1. 8 percent, when we have a house edge of 28% with a standard deviation of 1."

"You know your numbers." complimented Toby.

"Been in the family business since I was 15. Know it like the odds of a dealt straight." she said simply.

"254 to one." said Sylvester and Toby at the same time.

"Remind me to keep you guys away from our tables." said Ms. Connelly with a surprised look on her face.

"No, no, no, we're here to work. We'll just get settled in our room and start." interrupted Walter. The topic of gambling had caused him to clench and unclench his fist. Paige's nose crinkled when she saw him do it, she knew that he had to get further in touch with his emotions and she hoped that with her help he would be able to.

"Did you book a room?"

"Yes."

"Oh, no, no, we have that all taken care of." said Ms. Connelly as she motioned for the team to follow her. "My dad's been trying to get a 50,000-square-foot expansion off the ground concerts, private events he's spread himself so thin, you can see right through him."

Walter nodded in response and made it look as if he was merely accepting the information, but Paige knew that he was processing each piece of information that he was given.

"We can't really afford to lose a dime at the tables." finished Ms. Connelly, she glanced around at where she led them and that was when Paige noticed that she had led them outside by one of their many swimming pools.

"Okay, guys, while your suite's being prepared, we have reserved this cabana for you. All meals are on us, so just make yourselves at" Her phone rings in a jilting tone and she glances at the screen. "Hold on one moment, please."

"Okay. Thank you." said Walter as he turned back around towards the team. One waitress in a skimpy bikini was walking around the pool with some alcoholic drink with colorful umbrellas in them. Paige quickly grabbed one, she knew Walter wouldn't approve, but she wanted to have a little fun on the mission.

"Oh! Wouldn't want these to go to waste." said Toby grabbing a mojito, Paige watched from the corner of her eye as Walter's face morphed into exasperation. "Mmm! its mojito, it's very good."

"Guys, can we dial it down a notch, please? Paige, help me out here." asked Walter, his tone pleading for her to help him out. She felt blood rush to her cheeks as she turned around to face them.

Walter sighed loudly as he looked at her and she felt the need to defend herself. "What? I'm a single mom. I'm never coming back here."

Paige looked up to see Ms. Connelly walking back with her phone clutched in her hand, she nodded towards the direction of where Ms. Connelly was. Walter saw and straightened his shoulders.

"Okay, guys, my dad's in a meeting, but I can get you up to the penthouse now." said Ms. Connelly as she stared at them.

"Yes, please." said Walter as he eagerly followed behind her, Paige sighed and set down her drink.

Ms. Connell delegated a worker in the hotel to lead them up the room; the five of them followed her silently through the various halls of the hotel and casino. Eventually, they reached the penthouse and various stages of excitement were on each of the genius' faces.

"If you need anything, Miss Connelly said you should call her personally, and she'll take care of It." said the worker before walking out of the room.

"I have waited for this my whole life." said Toby in awe as he looked around the hotel room.

"Can you take a quick pic, so I can text it to Ralph?" Paige asked Happy as she held up her phone. Paige smiled and waited for the telltale click from her phone to signal that the picture was taken.

"I don't believe it." Sylvester's voice was dripping awe, Paige turned to see him standing by the bed, his eyes wide and staring.

"This bed is sterile." he whispered. Paige resisted the urge to laugh, a smile spread against her face but got smaller slightly when she saw Walter pulling out some of his tech stuff.

"Let's see what's on the no-pay-per-view." asked Toby, he stared at them expectantly and then sighed.

"'Cause it's comped get it?"

"Dude?!" yelled Toby as Walter switched the screen to his work computer. Paige resisted the urge to chuckle at the look of violation on Toby's face.

" Dude we're here to work, remember?" said Walter, he sighed and then pointed to the screen. "Now, there's 1. 65 times 10 to the 365th power decks in a six-deck shoe. We need to know all of them to find out why the Crimson is losing money."

"Only you could turn blackjack into math homework." muttered Toby dejectedly.

"I like math homework." said Sylvester from his place on the bed.

.

.

"That's $100 a square yard." said Bob Connelly staring shrewdly at Walter on the floor.

Walter was ripping out some of the carpet to place sensors on the floor.

"How much are you losing per day, at the tables?" replied Walter, to Bob's irritated comment.

"Fair enough."

"Now, to avoid the cost of re-wiring your ceiling cams, these pressure pads, going under the carpet, will be linked to a Brownian motion program I developed. It's based on the principle that people naturally move in random patterns." explained Walter as if it was the most simplest thing in the world. Some days Paige wondered how she had even agreed to work with them.

"Well, what if they move around in non-random patterns?" asked Mr. Connelly as he looked down at Walter.

"Then they're ripping you off." said Walter shortly.

.

.

"Tell me: where the hell's my money gone?" asked Mr. Connelly as he stared intensely at the group of geniuses.

"Sylvester?" asked Walter motioning to the security cameras.

"Okay, 11 players at three tables, some multiple hands, player success rate is above standard, but the wage rate hasn't deviated, since face card turnover low." started Sylvester as he stared at the screens.

"Okay, so no card counters." said Bob as he stared at the geniuses.

"Toby, what about dealer collusion?" asked Walter turning to Toby.

"I'm not reading any distraction behavior. Dealer shuffles look standard, per normalizer. No second deals, high-low pickups, or card swaps." said Toby as he stares at the security cameras.

"All right, pattern from the pressure pads shows randomized movement, so no one seems to be signaling a player from a distance." said Walter as he scanned the cameras. "I'm sorry, do you have any other angles on that table?"

"Move cameras 14 and 15 to high-roll blackjack two." Mr. Connelly said into a radio.

Walter leaned in towards the cameras and looked closely at it. "Can you zoom in his hands?"

"Zoom in on that."

"That dealer right there." Walter scoffs, he pointed at the hands of one of the dealers.. "Him he's the reason why you're losing money."

"Mr. Connelly, what's going on? I didn't do anything, I swear" said the dealer as he walked into the office to see several people there.

"Yeah, Ronny, uh I got an expert here who says your table's been losing us money." said Mr. Connelly as he stared at his employee.

"I got a family, I need this job. I wouldn't steal." said Ronny desperately. Paige felt bad for the man, it seemed that he genuinely needed the job.

"Oh, no no, no." said Walter to prevent Mr. Connelly from saying anything else. "He was telling the truth. He wasn't stealing."

"Can I see your hands, please?" asked Walter, as he held out his own hands to take the man's.

"Yes?" said the man questioningly.

"Now, despite Ronny's stature, he has below-average sized hands, which result in small index fingers, which result in slow dealer speed." started Walter until Toby interrupted him.

"Which results in fewer deals per hour." said Toby and Walter stepped forwards and finished.

"Which results in cumulatively large losses."

"I'm losing money 'cause this guy's got small mitts?" asked Bob sardonically.

"Yeah, but I just saved you a fortune in future losses. You just have to fire this gentleman." said Walter and Paige nearly groaned. Did he have any tact?

"What?!" exclaimed Ronny.

"It's nothing personal. You're just not fit for jobs where hand speed, dexterity are paramount. You're a detriment here." said Walter as if it was the most simple thing.

Paige had half a mind to pull Walter out of the room. He needed to learn about tact. He couldn't go around saying things that bluntly. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry, Ronny." said Mr. Connelly tiredly.

"Mr. Connelly" stammered Ronny, his voice shaking. "Please. This isn't right! This isn't fair!" yelled Ronny as the security guards dragged him out.

"Hey," said Paige, pulling Walter off to the corner of the room. "Quick rundown."

Walter hummed in response and looked at her curiously.

"You were rude to Toby at the garage, insensitive to Sylvester's fear of flying, and uncaring about that dealer's livelihood." said Paige crossing her arms over her chest.

"We were hired to solve a problem, which we did, like professionals, which we are." snapped Walter before he walked back to the group.

.

.

"So we've upgraded your security software. You should be more secure than you were yesterday." said Walter as he stared at Mr. Connelly. Paige silently fumed as she watched Walter interact with Mr. Connelly. She couldn't believe that he was just focused on the job and not the emotional aspects of it.

"Terrific job. You know, it's rare these days somebody actually delivers on everything they've promised." said Mr. Connelly as Walter finished up.

"Thank you. Well, that's very kind of you. Call us whenever you need us." said Walter as Mr. Connelly walked away from the group.

"Well, I can't wait to leave. The smoke in these places makes me dizzy." said Sylvester with a smile that lit up his face.

"We've got some time before the plane departs. I'm gonna go hit up some slots." said Happy as she started to walk away but was stopped at Walter's voice.

"No, no, no, you need to remove the pressure pads."

"There's enough time for her to both, Walter." Paige pleaded with her eyes to agree with her, she must have convinced him or he was feeling slightly guilty over snapping at her. "The job's over. Let your team have some fun."

"Okay, fine. I'm sorry. Go have fun, I'll pack up." said Walter waving them away.

"I'll go with you I told Ralph I'd play a couple games." Paige said to Happy.

"Fine. But if she's a cooler, I'm peeling off." said Happy. They started to walk away towards the slots.

"Hey, they face the loosest slots towards the entrance to draw in players," They all looked at Toby with odd looks. "so I'm like a blind man at a peep show."

.

.

Happy's hands pushed Paige out of the way as a bullet whizzed past her. Thoughts of Ralph and Walter flashed through her mind as the sound of the bullet hitting human flesh echoed in her ears.

She could have died, or been severely injured, the thought bothered her. It made her think about what would happen to those she cared about if she died. It didn't help that Scorpion often worked with such dangerous cases. She could easily die at any time and then where would Ralph go? Would he go to his father? Could Walter get custody of him? A part of her knew that if she died the best place for him would be at the Garage.

The burglars shot a few more rounds before running out of the casino. Paige slowly stood up and felt thankful that she was able to.

"Thank you." said Paige genuinely to Happy for the third time since the bullet had left the gun.

"Don't get sappy about it." said Happy, glancing at Paige from the corner of her eye.

"I calculated the trajectory of the bullet and muzzle length, relative to the position of your torso.

It was physics, not heroics." said Happy robotically.

"And you knew it would only graze the guy behind me?" asked Paige with an eyebrow raised.

"I didn't calculate his position. I'm a genius, not Superman." said Happy as they spotted the rest of the team walking over.

"Hey," said Walter as he looked at them and glanced at the man on the gurney getting rolled into the ambulance.

"Are you guys alright?" asked Walter as he looked at both Happy and Paige as if checking for injuries. Internally, she was incredibly proud of how his EQ was shining through, when those that he cared about were in danger.

Paige looked behind Walter, to see Mr. Connelly with another man in a dark suit, she easily saw his badge that was clenched in his hand as he walked.

"Walter. This is Detective Lou Rake." said Mr. Connelly causing a couple of the geniuses to jump.

"Oh, hi, Detective."

"Yeah, how you doing, Mr. O'Brien?" the detective looked them all up and down as if they were criminals and Paige instantly had a bad feeling about it.

"Good." said Walter hesitantly.

"Tell me what you saw." demanded Detective Lou Rake.

"Uh, yes, before the gunmen entered, there were two men, baseball caps, casing the money cart." started Walter before the detective interrupted him.

"So, we know the masked men entered through the main odd thing is, the exterior cameras didn't see them leaving." the detective stared hardly at Walter. "No sign at all."

"They could still be in the casino?" Paige asked staring at the detective questioningly.

"Well, unis are doing a second sweep, but it's more likely they left another way." Paige nearly growled at how mysterious the detective was being.

"How is that possible?" asked Walter, looking at the detective like it was the first time he was seeing him clearly.

"You tell me. You're the ones that came here, got involved with the security system just before the robbery."

"Oh, are you kidding me? Mr. Connelly, you can't think I have anything to do with this?" said Walter as he turned towards their former employer. The man had a hard look on his face that told Paige that he wouldn't be helping them.

"Those cameras you asked to be turned on a table created a temporary blind spot." said the detective crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, I was just doing my job." said Walter defending himself.

"Now I'm just out ten million bucks." said Mr. Connelly, his voice like ice.

"You what did you see?" the detective asked turning towards Sylvester. His already green hued face became a little more pronounced. Sylvester just shook his head.

"He's already vomited once today." warned Toby.

"He was face-down on the floor like everyone else." said Walter sternly. It seemed that Walter had taken offense that his team was under suspicion.

"We were all on the ground. No one moved except for the robbers." said Toby angrily, a vein bulged out of his forehead as he talked to the detective.

"We still have those heat sensors under the carpet." Walter said as he got out the necessary equipment to track the footsteps.

Walter turned it on and started walking quickly towards where the footsteps must have been leading him.

"But the software shows footsteps coming into this room at the time of the robbery? There has to be a back exit." said Walter as he looked around where the technology had led him. Paige looked around hoping that a solution would pop out at them and solve all the problems.

"No. It's a storage room. One door." said the detective glaring at Walter and his team.

"Why would they come in here?" asked Walter as he looked around the storage room.

"Well, maybe to put on your invisibility cloaks?" asked the detective sardonically as he glared at all of the Scorpion team.

"For the last time, we had nothing to do with the robbery." Walter said irritably, glaring daggers at the detective.

"Uh, sir? We were able to isolate something - on the casino's mics." said a security guard as he held up a phone in his hand.

"Oh, play it, play it." said the detective eagerly.

"Yes, sir."

Walter's voice crackled over the mic, "Be cool, guys. A robbery's about to go down."

"No, no. started Walter before the detective rudely interrupted him.

"No, I know, you were just settling your crew before your pals came in with guns." accused the detective.

"That's ridiculous." said Walter throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"No, you went up to the control booth, you scoped out the room, you repositioned the cameras, and you were able to call the score a second before it happened." said the detective with a harsh look on his face.

"I observed abnormal behavior patterns, and I warned my friends." said Walter irritably. She could see that he was hardly holding himself together and was resisting the urge to lash out at the detective.

"Well, pardon me if I have trouble believing that. Now you're gonna stay here. I'm gonna get a warrant to search your room."

"You know what, you don't need a warrant, and when you don't find anything, I expect an apology." said Walter, he was at his breaking point and Paige could tell. She had finally gotten some of his mannerisms down and knew that when his eyebrow twitched like it was that he was at the end of the line.

"All right, let's get to it." said Walter as he stormed up to their room. Everyone followed him silently and the detective seemed to be trading silent looks with some of the police officers and Paige knew that it could mean no good.

They entered the room and the policemen started to tear it apart looking for anything that would incriminate them. Paige sighed as she watched them tear apart the room. She walked up and stood by Walter's side to provide him with silent comfort and it seemed to work as his shoulders slumped.

"Oh, not the bed. It was so clean." moaned Sylvester as one of the policemen started to pull back the bed.

"Maybe we should call Cabe." said Paige quietly as she glanced at Walter. He shook his head and Paige knew what words would come out of his mouth before he could say them.

"No, absolutely not. Under no circumstances - are we calling Cabe." Walter said vehemently.

"Stop being stubborn. This is serious." said Paige in a gently scolding tone. Couldn't he see reason? Did he not see that they could be in potentially a lot of trouble and Cabe could probably have it sorted out with a snap of his fingers.

"They're not gonna find anything. We didn't rob anyone, remember?" said Walter just loud enough for Paige to hear. She sighed and then watched as the policemen continued their search.

"Detective Rake." said one policemen as he opened a bag that was filled with money.

"Step away, please. Thank you." said the detective as he stepped up to check the money. "Oh, the serial numbers match the lot from the cash card."

Paige gasped, she recognized the bag, she had seen it many times when she was over at the Garage. How the hell did this happen?

"Whose bag is this?" asked the detective briskly as he eyed the geniuses as if they were filth stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

"It's mine, but I didn't take that money." said Walter stepping up.

"So it just magically appeared the way those robbers magically disappeared?" asked the detective sarcastically. His small laugh grated on Paige's nerves and she just hoped that when they proved him wrong, he would have to apologize to Walter.

"I have never committed a crime in my life." Walter said passionately as he looked at the detective.

"Well, you did hack into NASA." murmured Toby loud enough for the detective to hear.

"Shut up."

"Cuff him." said the detective and motioned for a police officer to handcuff him.

"You can't arrest him." said Paige fiercely.

"Actually, I can." he said viciously and then leaned towards Walter. "Oh, don't hold your breath for that apology."

"You're under arrest, Mr. O'Brien."

.

.

"This is ridiculous; I'm calling Cabe." whispered Paige into Walter's ear.

For whatever reason he seemed to have some courage even being in a courtroom where he would most likely be guilty.

"I am your employer. I'm telling you no." said Walter, still facing the front of the court. "Just my employer," Paige muttered under her breath, she wasn't even sure if Walter had heard her.

"We're a professional company. We can handle this without calling Cabe." said Walter, brushing her off.

"You're in handcuffs." said Paige glancing down at the metal around his wrists.

"I have a plan; don't worry." Walter murmured back. Paige sighed, most of his plans didn't include any emotional traits and that was the downfall.

"Mr. O'Brien, I understand you waived your public defender." said the judge as she read off of a piece of paper.

"Correct, yes." said Walter as he met the judge's eyes. "I-I don't need one since this court can't provide me with a fair trial. You see, it's my constitutional right to a jury of my peers. Which means you'd need to find 12 residents of Clark County, Nevada, with an IQ of 197 or above, and I've spent some time in Clark County. I can tell you that's not gonna happen."

Paige's forehead collided with her hand and she sighed loudly. Didn't he realize that no judge would take that as a valid reason. He just seemed full of himself, which was true in this case.

"Not good." muttered Toby from Paige's left. She nodded in agreement.

"Bail is set at 500,000." said the judge hitting her gavel on the desk. Paige groans and rubs her hand against her forehead.

"Your Honor, on what grounds? asked Walter incredulously.

"I consider your enormous IQ a contributing factor to flight risk. Next case." said the judge dismissing him.

"Toby, win my bail money. Toby, the bet's off." said Walter as he was dragged out of the courtroom.

.

.

Paige pushed open the dingy motel room door and looked around the room. It was the quickest room they could get for a cheap price.

"Okay, so we've got to figure out how we're spring Walter." said Happy as she set a bag down on one of the two beds.

"You heard him; I'm gambling him out." said Toby looking at her pointedly.

"No, I've seen you after a two-day crap bender. You get nuts and lose judgment, and I do not trust you doubling down on Walter's freedom." said Happy as she glanced around the room.

"Speaking of which, we only have, like, two hours until County Clerk Office closes at 5:00.

He'll be held in there all weekend, and the longer he's in there, the better the chance the evidence that could clear him will be lost or destroyed." said Sylvester as he scrolled through information on his laptop.

"Why is that?" asked Toby suspiciously as he eyes Sylvester, as if daring him to say the words that he was thinking.

"If anyone could find out who framed him, he can." said Sylvester as if it was the most simplest thing in the world and for the geniuses it was.

"Why do you think only Walter can solve this? I mean, who ruined you?" asked Toby, his voice raising as he got to the end.

" My dad." said Sylvester quietly.

"It was rhetorical." said Toby looking over at him oddly. Paige ran a hand through her hair, could they not work together without Walter?

"If we bail Walter out without figuring out who set him up, he's just gonna go to trial eventually and get convicted." interrupted Happy.

"We need to find out who framed him." said Sylvester as he looked at each of them.

"Wrong. This is triage. We need to get him out before anything else." said Toby, giving his two cents.

"I disagree." said Happy firmly as she glared at Toby.

"I'm not sure." said Sylvester nervously.

"Well, I'm not surprised." Toby said snarkily. Paige was ready to pull her hair out. Couldn't they all get along for a moment without Walter?

-"Oh, my God, enough! You guys have been without Walter ten minutes, and you're already at each other's throats. Can you win the money fast enough, yes or no?" asked Paige briskly and turned towards Toby like a dark cloud. He backed away before pulling out his wallet.

"I got 112 bucks." he said pulling out a few bills.

"Sylvester?" asked Paige as she turned towards him. The genius quickly pulled his wallet out and sorted through some bills inside.

"I have $80, but if I'm counting cards to avoid detection, I need to keep my bets small." said Sylvester as he put bills on the table.

"It could take all weekend to raise the cash - that we need." said Sylvester as he looked around the team.

"Which is why you are going to money ball the sports book. Start memorizing players fast." said Toby handing Sylvester the book.

"If you and I can somehow see the surveillance footage outside our suite, maybe we'll spot who planted that money in Walter's bag." said Happy to Paige as she stood and started walking towards the door.

.

.

"All right, ladies, I was able to pull the film, but I only did this to make a point." said the detective as he pulled up a security feed of their room.

"No one in or out of the room from the time you left until we came back to search for it." the detective leaned back and stared at them shrewdly.

"You said you had a point to make." said Paige as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, you're all in on it. We only found cash in your pal's bag, and you turn on him, I'll talk to the D. A., get you a deal. You don't, I'm gonna go after each and every one of you."

Paige could feel her ire rising, she restrained the urge to yell at the man. She had to stay strong for Walter. He was stuck being locked up and she had to make sure the team was running smoothly.

"Absolutely not." said Paige fiercely.

"Look, that window." Happy said pointing at the window in the security feed. "The angle's from a different floor from the floor we were on."

Happy turned towards Paige. "Give me that picture we took for Ralph."

"Here" said Paige as she pulled her phone out of her purse. She was thankful that Ralph had asked her to take a picture.

"She posed in our suite. Our floor was perfectly aligned with the tiger's eyes on the casino across the street. The angle on this footage is by its mouth. This camera was on another floor. Someone spliced these tapes." Happy said leaning back with a satisfied smile on her face.

"I'm going to have to look into this." said the detective leaning towards his computer and started typing.

"You do that." said Happy as she turned around and left Paige and the detective in her dust.

"That was so badass." whispered Paige as she quickened her pace to catch up to Happy.

"Whoever framed Walter is desperate enough to fudge film and then give it to the cops. The problem is, Vegas is full of desperate people." said Happy as she looked around the entryway of the police station.

Paige looked at some of the papers posted around the police station and her eyes widened as she found and advertisement that would easily help solve the case and then in turn free Walter.

"Check it out." said Paige pointing at the paper that was tacked to the wall.

"A public hearing announcement for the Crimson expansion building permits." read Happy, a mischievous look came upon her face.

"Renee said her dad was spread real thin financially." Paige shrugged.

"Sounds pretty desperate to me." agreed Happy. Happy walked over to the receptionist's desk and had a polite smile on her face.

"Hey, are the permit applications for the Crimson expansion public record?" The woman nodded.

"Great. We'd like copies of everything you have."

.

.

"Toby! Hey! I thought you guys were gambling down the street." yelled Paige over the sound of the casino.

"Toby said this place had better odds." said Sylvester defensively.

"Sylvester, we think we found something. We found records that Bob Connelly's massive expansion has been held up for months due to permit issues until very recently." explained Paige as she glanced over at Happy to make sure that she had said the correct information.

"You think he paid someone off?" asked Sylvester curiously.

"This is Vegas. The payoff was practically invented here" Happy looked around the casino in thinly veiled disgust at the men that betted at each opportunity.

"The guy's tight on cash; his own daughter said so. It's possible the robbery is really an insurance scam to cover the cost of a permit bribe." said Happy as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Where's Toby?" asked Paige as she looked around the casino and then saw him by the roulette wheel.

"That's a bit of a problem." said Sylvester as he rubbed the back of his neck shyly. His eyes darted to where Toby was and Happy cursed foully under her breath.

Happy, Sylvester and Paige all rushed towards where Toby was in hopes of being able to stop him from causing any problems that could impact them all.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Paige as she walked up to Toby, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye and then turned back towards the roulette wheel.

"Look at how she holds the ball, so gingerly and lightly. She's a gentle soul. It's fascinating." Toby said in a dreamy voice, ignoring Paige's harsh words.

"We'll get the rest of the money another way." said Paige as she glanced worriedly at the roulette wheel.

"She always drops the ball opposite a red. Maybe her first car was red or her mom always wore red lipstick." Toby paused. "Either way, I got this pegged."

"No, you don't." countered Happy as Paige saw that she had clenched her hands into tight fists.

"Let's take the money we have and get out of here." Paige said in a soft voice, like when she talked to Ralph after a nightmare.

"Okay, Paige." said Toby serenely as he watched the woman at the roulette wheel. "I got this." He said suddenly and ran towards the wheel.

"No, no, no." Paige said loudly following him. Sylvester and Happy exclaimed their disagreements loudly as they followed him. Toby set down the chips on the table and watched the roulette wheel.

"That's it. No more bets." said the dealer. Paige groaned and covered her eyes.

"I don't even want to look." Sylvester murmured from behind his hands.

.

.

"Sylvester, where are we now?" asked Toby from where he was lying in the motel room.

"The potentialities of exonerating Walter are terrible." said Sylvester glaring weakly at Toby. Paige sighed, couldn't they get along? She hadn't noticed before the force that Walter had over the other geniuses.

"Really? There's a lot of negative vibes in this room right now. I think a beer might help."

"What would have helped was you not gambling away the bail money." said Happy darkly. Paige hated that she agreed with Happy. She didn't want to be so negative, it seemed that these geniuses were naturally as negative as she was feeling.

"You know, everyone's acting like we were applying for a bank loan. We were gambling. There's risk involved." Toby said simply as if it would solve all of their problems.

"No, we're not going through with this again. We've already let Walter down once. A second time isn't an option." said Paige as she watched each genius glare at Toby.

Paige looked at each of them. She was at a loss with them. How could she fix this, Happy, Sylvester and Toby needed to stop pointing fingers at each other. In that moment Paige missed Walter more than anything. She missed how he could lead them and that he made her feel safe. And she was feeling insecure, like it was possible that their plan would fall into shambles and Walter would end up being convicted.

"Yes." said Paige as she noticed Sylvester's raised hand.

"Are you our new Walter?" asked Sylvester calmly. Paige was shocked for a moment at the thought. Except someone had to step up and they couldn't keep arguing amongst themselves. It would solve nothing and cause even more problems.

"You brainiacs can't agree on anything, so I'm stepping up."

"Okay. What's our plan, boss?" asked with a large maniacal grin. Paige ground her teeth in annoyance and forced herself to push the feeling away.

"Bob Connelly was overextended, so it's possible either he or someone working for him put the money in in his bag." started Paige hoping that any of the geniuses would work on a theory of why Walter was framed.

"If we can prove he was in the red, it might establish motive to frame Walter." said Happy as she leaned forwards against her knees.

"That is an interesting theory, but we can't hack into Connelly's financial records because Walter just had to go and install his security overlay." Sylvester said with a moan of despair as he kept typing on his laptop.

"You can't hack your own software?" asked Paige. Couldn't they figure out a way through it.

"No, it's Walter software." Sly paused for a moment as if to think of something. "We could follow the steps, but it's millions of lines of code."

"There is another way." said Sylvester suddenly, Paige's hopes picked up at the thought that they had a better chance to free Walter. "I might be able to sniff into their network."

"We would have to attach a remote-frequency jump drive with a VPN to Connelly's computer and one to my laptop, and then they could speak to each other. They could transfer data." explained Sylvester.

Paige barely understood a word of what he said. But, she trusted the geniuses and if they all believed it would work then she would do her damndest to make sure that it would work.

"The Crimson thinks we just robbed them of $10 million. Can't just walk in through the front door." said Toby sarcastically as he looked around them. He seemed to still be in a slightly bad mood from when everyone was blaming him for losing all of the money.

"Then we won't use the front door." Happy smirked.

.

.

Wind rushed through Paige's hair. She looked down at the busy city streets beneath them and a part of it frightened her. The night sky shined and Paige was sure that most other nights she would willingly sit and watch the stars, but at that moment fear was what was plaguing her the most.

"That's hundreds of feet down." said Paige as she looked over the edge of the building.

"Hey, project manager, don't lose the receipt." said Happy from where she was preparing her crossbow.

"Won't exterior cameras see us?" asked Paige as she looked around the buildings. The possible problems that could happen if they were seen buzzed through her mind as she glanced at Toby and Happy.

"I calculated a 12-degree-angle blind spot." said Happy, she glanced at Toby from the corner of her eye. "So don't swing your legs too much, skinny."

"I don't see a harness in that duffel bag." muttered Toby as he looked at the duffel bag and Paige refrained from grinning.

"Ear buds in." Paige grabbed hers and put it in her ear as everyone else did the same.

"You're not terrified right now?" asked Paige as she glanced at the edge of the building.

"I did the calculations. No problem." Happy said simply. Paige nodded slightly. She wasn't sure how these geniuses were able to rely on just calculations and nothing else astounded her.

"Hey, when I grow up, I want to be you. Good luck." said Paige as she gulped audibly when she saw Happy grab the handle to her zip line.

"Luck doesn't exist. Math and science does." retorted Happy before she tightly held the handle and zipped along the zip line towards the other building.

"Paige, just keep Sylvester in the loop." said Toby absentmindedly. Paige nodded and pressed the small button on the ear piece.

"Sylvester, we're a go on the roof." said Paige as she watched Happy swing forwards. Another genius popped into her head and she wondered how he was doing. With his brains he was either bored as hell or planning an escape. And she wasn't sure which one she would prefer him to be.

"Copy that. Be careful." said Sylvester before a second of static filled her ear signaling that he had let go of the button.

"I'll go." offered Toby as he watched Toby land on the other building.

"I can help you." said Paige as she helped Toby stand on the ledge. He grabbed onto the handle with white knuckles.

"Don't look." instructed Paige as she chanced a glance at the ground beneath them.

"I really don't want to die in the middle of a dry spell." said Toby as he looked up at the sky.

"It was just one bad run at roulette. You're going to be okay." said Paige reassuringly as she helped him stand up straight.

"I'm not talking about gambling." Paige blushed and forgot to say anything else as she thought of Walter once more.

"Okay! I'm going to go now." Toby took a deep breath and pushed off.

"Hurry. Security is inside." came Sylvester's crackly voice over the ear bud.

"Sylvester, the jump drive's in. You can initiate the download." next came Happy's voice.

Paige leaned against the ledge of the building as she listened to the conversation between the geniuses. She looked around at the bright night sky with few stars and the busy streets below her.

"Sylvester? The drive's showing that the transfer has been interrupted." said Happy, her voice tinged with annoyance. Paige perked up and listened intently to the ear bud.

"What's going on?" asked Paige, she held her breath and tapped her fingers against the bricks.

"A mean lady made me move my car!" yelled Sylvester. A cacophony of tires screeching and horns beeping came over the ear bud and Paige winced at the sounds.

"Talk to me, Sylvester." said Paige firmly.

"I'm almost back in front of the hotel!" yelled Sylvester and Paige ran a hand through her hair.

"It's the pedal on the right, Grandma." said Toby and Paige hit her forehead with her hand.

"Okay, it went through. Good job."

The sound of Toby's harsh breaths over the ear bud and his frantic words of security chasing him left a decision with Paige. She could either go in and try to help Happy get out of there or she could stay where she was and hope that it would all turn it out well.

Paige took a deep breath and knew what she had to do. She grabbed the handle on the zip line and squeezed her eyes shut. Bursts of wind flew through her hair and caressed her face as she held onto the handle with white knuckles. The streets were below her and it was just as easy to let go.

She raised her legs as Happy's instructions came to mind. Paige tumbled onto the concrete and looked up. She was alright. She had survived zip lining across a building. That was one thing she had never thought that she would do. She wiped off any dust off of her clothes and walked over towards the open air vent. She wrapped a line that would help pull Happy up into the vent when she got there.

"Thanks, Happy." came Walter's voice and Paige's head snapped up from her crawling position and she hit her head hard on the vent. She cursed under her breath and tried to ignore the way it echoed off of the vents.

Walter? What the hell was he doing out of jail? How the hell did he get out? When did he get out of jail? How did he find them? She sighed and continued crawling. She needed to get to Happy to help her.

"Paige?" asked Walter. Paige blushed as she realized that they must have heard her cursing.

"Walter? What the hell are you doing out of jail? What are you doing in the Crimson? I'm trying to clear your name." said Happy fiercely. "Except now that Toby's gone, looks like I'm going to be in jail soon enough, 'cause I've got no one to pull me out."

"Okay, I can hear voices outside the door. I'm cooked."

Paige smiled to herself and pushed down the vent in the office that Happy was in. Happy looked at her with a shocked expression.

"You almost took a bullet for me; figured I could take a zip-line for you. Let's go."

.

.

Paige's breaths were heavy and labored as she ran for the car that was just ahead of her. Her and Happy jumped in the backseat. Paige leaned against the seat and attempted to catch her breath. She wasn't aware that she could even run that fast.

"Walter, how did you get out?" asked Paige, heavy breaths accompanying each word. She glanced at him through one of the mirrors and was happy to see that nothing was wrong with him. His eyes met hers for a moment before turning back to the road.

"Ronny." Walter took a breath. "You were right, he wasn't such a bad guy." Paige smiled lightly at that Walter willingly admitted that he was wrong, it was rare that Walter admitted that he was wrong and Paige resisted the urge to say anything about it.

"Call Toby, we can go pick him up." said Sylvester as he kept nervously glancing on the road and the girls in the back.

"No. For all we know, he's hiding in a broom closet. His phone rings, we can give away his location. Toby's a street rat; he'll track us down. He'll be okay." said Happy. Paige pretended to ignore all of the information about Toby, Happy had spouted off. Some of it was information that a person learned about Toby after just meeting him another part of it was after getting to know him.

"All right, based on what I heard in jail, the odds are there is an inside man who knew about the secret tunnel." said Walter as he continued driving through the busy city streets.

"All of Connelly's accounts are financially stable." added Paige as she realized some of the information that Walter wasn't aware of because of his time in jail.

"Even if he did have to pay someone off, he would've been able to get a bridge loan easier than faking a robbery." concluded Walter. Paige nodded and glanced out the window.

"Sylvester, pull up the blueprints for the casino. There's a service entrance they would have used to exit that tunnel to their getaway car." instructed Walter as he kept driving. Paige sat on the edge of her seat, they were so close to figuring it out and the idea was exciting.

"An employee key cards needed to open that door." said Sylvester as he swiped through the information he was finding.

"So the person that swiped their card to prop open the door before the robbery is the inside man. We have all the casino's files." said Walter, astonishment leaking through his tone. Paige smiled and glanced through the mirror at Walter again.

"I-I can just pull up a log of all the swipes." said an excited Sylvester.

Happy's phone started to go off and she picked it out of her pocket. "It's a text from Toby."

" Security just dropped me off in the desert. I need you to pick me up at 115 longitude, directly under Orion's Belt." read Happy. She looked up at the team, uneasiness marring her features.

.

.

Paige wrung her hands together as the SUV pulled up into the coordinates that Toby had given them. She saw several other cars with their headlights on and she could vaguely see the outline of Toby near one of them.

"I told you, you and casinos don't mix." said Happy and Paige noticed that Happy had already gotten out of the car.

"Get out the car now! Time to do some digging." yelled Ms. Connelly. Paige and Sylvester stepped out of the car with their hands up. Walter stepped out after them, his face shining in the light just enough for Ms. Connelly to see him.

"Hold on. He's supposed to be locked up. There's something wrong." yelled Ms. Connelly to her crew.

The pounding sounds of sirens and the yells of officers echoed in her ears as they took down Ms. Connelly and her team. Paige felt Walter walk behind her and she gave him a small smile. She was happy that he was out of jail, it gave her one less thing to worry about.

"Told you guys you weren't ready to go out on your own." said Cabe as he walked out from behind the team of geniuses with a wry smile on his face.

"How the hell did you know I was in trouble?" yelled Toby, as he looked at them for an explanation.

"Walter called. Said you texted about meeting underneath Orion's Belt because it isn't visible this time of the year." said Cabe as he walked up next to Sylvester.

"Walter figured it out?" asked Toby in an annoyed tone.

Paige nudged Walter lightly as she saw the detective walking towards them. His notice of the detective caused the rest of the team to see him. A smirk was on Happy's face as he walked closer and Sylvester crossed his arms over his chest in anxiousness.

"All right, turns out Renee's been laundering money for the Jotas for years through the casino. She's the one that had access to the security film." the detective said with his hands up.

"Remember when you wouldn't apologize to Walter?" The words were accompanied with a callous stare from the whole group.

"I'm sorry." said the detective, staring at the ground intensely. Paige resisted the urge to smile.

"For the record, you were a great Walter." Sylvester whispered to Paige, she smiled and patted his shoulder. She was finally starting to feel as if she was becoming a part of the team and not some outsider.

"Any thoughts on how we're getting home?" asked Happy as she looked around the desert at the helicopters that were slowly disappearing into the night sky.

"I'd prefer it if we didn't fly." said Sylvester as he looked at the rest of the team.

"Fine. Get in." said Cabe gruffly. All of the team got into the car except for Walter and Toby. Paige resisted the urge to laugh at the look on their faces. She knew that Cabe just wanted the two to fix their problems and Paige had to agree with him.

She watched silently as Walter and Toby walked off towards Las Vegas, the city lights beckoning them.

.

.

Paige sat at her desk in the Garage, she glanced at the clock to see it nearing four in the morning, she had hoped that Walter would have been back by then. But, it seemed however he and Toby had decided to come back was taking awhile. She sighed and glanced at the door for the hundredth time since she had gotten back to the Garage.

Ralph was spending time with his sitter and she had told them that she most likely wouldn't be back until morning. He had said that he understood, what he understood she wasn't sure.

The door to the Garage was pushed open and Paige perked up at the sight. Walter walked in, his clothes were slightly rumpled, most likely from prolonged wear. A small smile lit up her face at the sight of him. He was pulling at the loose tie around his neck and Paige smiled at the innocent action.

"Hey," said Paige, he looked up at her in surprise and for some reason she felt a fuzzy feeling in her stomach at the look of surprise. It was hard to surprise Walter and she took pleasure in the fact that she did.

"You didn't have to wait." said Walter as he walked over to her. Paige tried to stifle a yawn and blinked tiredly.

"I wanted to make sure you'd come back safe." said Paige, she looked up to see that he was only a few feet away. He nodded uncertainly.

A hand hesitantly went towards her waist and he pressed his lips to her forehead. Paige chuckled and moved her arms towards his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Her lips were molded against his and she was sure that almost no force could separate them. Her hands curled through his hair as his hands moved up her back and tangled within her hair.

A short moan escaped her lips as he pulled her closer to him. Her hands grasped at him, the sound of a car pulling in and being turned off caused them to spring apart.

Walter quickly walked to the other side of the room and tried to straighten his shirt. Paige ran a hand through her hair in an attempt to calm it and straightened her shirt.

The door to the Garage opened and in walked Cabe. His eyes shifted between them, and seemed to come to his own conclusion and Paige figured that it was similar to what actually happened. There was a very faint, almost nonexistent patch of red on his cheeks.

"Just wanted to make sure you got back." said Cabe as he continued to stare at them suspiciously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." said Walter in response.

"I'll see you at our next job," said Cabe as a goodbye, he walked out the Garage door shutting softly behind him.

Paige sighed in relief and leaned against her desk, that was far too close for her liking. The team might just find out without them telling them and that was what worried Paige the most.

 **A/N:** HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I wanted to make sure that I could get the chapter done by Christmas as a gift for all of you who have been so patient for each chapter. I love all the positive responses to the last chapter and if there is anything specific you guys want in the next chapter PM me or put it in a review and I can try and out it in.

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing. But I love to write fanfiction...**


	5. Chapter 4 Revealing It All

**A Few Mistakes Ago**

 **Chapter 4: Revealing It All**

 _Look into your eyes  
And the sky's the limit  
I'm  
Helpless!  
Down for the count  
And I'm drownin' in 'em_

 _-Helpless, Hamilton (Lin Manuel-Miranda)_

Sunlight streamed through Paige's apartment window and she absentmindedly lifted her arm to cover her eyes. A low groan echoed from beside her and she opened one eye to see the man beside her rubbing his jaw.

"Sorry," she giggled as she looked at the damage she caused. Walter was rubbing his jaw from where she had accidently hit him. He looked at her and sighed letting his head fall back onto the pillow.

Another giggle escaped her lips as he sighed and closed his eyes.

"Why is it funny that you hurt me?" asked Walter, confusion lacing his tone. Paige smiled at the question and laid her head against his chest. Sometimes how inept he could be was adorable.

"It's funny because no one often sees you react that way and I like to see the real you." A short smile finds its way to his face and Paige can't help the joy that pools in her chest. Walter's face crinkles up in confusion and looks at her strangely.

"Ok," said Walter, as he started to get up. A cold rush of air hits her and Paige groans.

"Can't we just stay?" whined Paige. All she really wanted was to stay in bed with Walter right next to her.

"No, we have work and Ralph will be up within the next seven minutes?" stated Walter as the bed creaked under his weight.

"Seven?" asked Paige. How the hell was he so precise?

"Based on his sleep patterns and at the time he went to slee-"

"I get it." interrupted Paige. He nodded and Paige leaned forwards, she pecked him on the lips before he walked over to the shower.

.

.

The three of them pulled up to the Garage and Paige was thankful to not see any of the other genius's cars there yet.

"I'm going to change." said Walter as he walked up to the loft. Ralph ran over to a project he was working on while Paige sat down heavily on her chair. She went over paperwork and mentally reminded herself that Ralph could only stay for an hour before she has to take him to school.

The next hour passes quickly. Paige felt accomplished that she had actually managed to get some work done. Walter came back down from the loft and was working on who knows what. Happy, Toby and Sylvester had all arrived and started on their own projects.

Paige glanced at the clock and pushed back her seat. She looked around for Ralph and found him working with some of Happy's tools.

"I said we could come in for an hour before school started. That ended five minutes ago, bud." Said Paige as she watched his hands move.

"Ralph, did you even touch your breakfast?" She asked as she noticed that his breakfast was untouched nearby.

"To move it over." Said Ralph cheekily. Paige transferred her weight to her right side and stared down at her son. He avoided her gaze as he continued to work.

Paige looked up to see Happy walking over. "Hey, I gave you your own set of Allen wrenches for a reason." She said as she walked up, looking down at the tools Ralph was using. Paige had no idea what any of the tools were and was amazed by her son's knowledge of it.

"I have them set by lens strength." said Ralph as he got them ready for Happy to take.

"Ah, well done. First optics test is you check for spherical aberration." said Happy with a slight smile.

"Actually, the first test he needs to do is long division." Interrupted Paige. "So, he can't be late for school."

"Do you really think we need a test to determine if he knows long division?" asked Walter as he seemed half focused on whatever his new project was. To Paige it all looked like a mess.

"Point taken, but he still needs to be at school on time. Go downstairs and get your backpack."

Ralph ran downstairs and went looking for his back pack. Paige slowly walked over to where Walter and Sylvester were working on something.

"What is that?" asked Paige as she looked at whatever it was.

" It's a centrifuge." Answered Sylvester.

"Have you guys had breakfast yet?" asked Paige, her mother voice seeping into her tone.

"We're working here." said Walter simply as his eyes did not leave the centrifuge.

"Ralph does the same thing." murmured Paige as they continued to work. There had been several times that she had caught Ralph so engrossed in what he was doing that he never heard her.

"Well, focus is normal when someone goes down the rabbit hole, you'll know." stated Sylvester as he kept working, his eyes never meeting Paige's.

"What's a rabbit hole?" asked Paige, her brows furrowing in confusion.

"Dehydration, loss of sense of time, antisocial behavior." stated Walter, avoiding looking at her. There was something with him and the rabbit hole. He was just trying to hide it. Paige made a mental note to question him on it.

"And how do you avoid that?" questioned Paige.

"You avoid it by starting a team like Scorpion." said Walter as he motioned for Paige to follow him. He set down his tools and wiped his hands on his pants. Walter led her over to the railing of the loft, his hand ghosting over the small of her back.

Down below, Toby was playing a card game with Ralph.

"I've never seen him happier." A smile found its way onto Paige's face. A calm and genteel feel washed over her and she couldn't help but feel that everything was right.

"He's in the right place." responded Walter simply.

.

.

Paige sat nervously in her car as Walter drove them to wherever their next job was. He was surprisingly quiet about it and wouldn't let up about what was going on. The car pulled into a driveway of a house that looked like it had been let go for several years. Walter pulled the car to a stop and they all got out.

"Guys, this way." said Walter as he motioned for them to follow him into the backyard of whoever's house this was.

"You know how much we love a good mystery, Walter." started Toby as his eyes started analyzing their surroundings. "What exactly are we doing here?"

"Working." replied Walter shortly. Paige raised an eyebrow in question and she knew the geniuses were not buying an ounce of the crap he was selling.

"I bet this picks up the country station nice and clear." said Paige as they entered this house's backyard. There was a large radio antenna that stuck up into the air. It was so large it was almost a joke that someone would have something so big.

"That is quite a fence. Half-inch diameter rebar, reinforced steel chain-link mesh." Happy said as she looked suspiciously at Walter.

"Pure paranoia." stated Toby.

Paige knew that the rest of the team's mind was whizzing. And that they were coming to something. She didn't know what and whatever it would be would most likely blow up in their faces as Walter was refusing to say why they were there.

"There can't be more than a few people in California with this much listening equipment." said Happy, suspicion filtering into her face.

"Whose house is this, Walter?" asked Toby as he put his hands on his hips.

"Keep an open mind." said Walter as they entered the back of the house and headed to the basement.

"Mark Collins?!" exploded Toby as he threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Are you insane?" asked Happy simultaneously as Toby.

"No, but Collins is." said Toby angrily. It was the first time that Paige had actually seen Toby angry, and it was a rare sight. Walter didn't react at all to the team.

"Someone want to explain?" asked Paige as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"He was a member of the team, it didn't work out." responded Walter shortly.

"With Collins, Didn't work out is an understatement." said Happy coldly, glaring at Walter.

"You lured us here." accused Toby.

"Would you have come if you knew?" asked Walter knowingly as they walked down the basement steps.

"No."

"Help us find the recordings we're looking for. All we need is data." Walter said as if it was the simplest thing that he had ever decided.

"Where's Collins?" asked Toby mockingly.

"He was arrested." Behind Walter's back Toby rolled his eyes.

"Of course he is."

"All right, let's get a move on, come on." They all followed Walter down the stairs into the basement.

Paige was absolutely appalled at the sight. It was a mess. There were papers taped up everywhere and scattered around the room. It was like a tornado had swept through the place.

"My God, was he always like this?" She picked up a piece of paper and glanced at the scribbles on the paper, not understanding a word.

"What's the story with this Collins?" asked Paige finally. Who was this guy really? How did he affect the team so much.

"Well, if you didn't agree with him, he'd argue with you until you did, and he knew his mind games." said Toby walking up beside her, just quiet enough for Walter not to hear them. "The worst of it was how he affected Walter. He'd get in his head, erase his good judgment and forget we existed."

"Guys." Walter said insistently. Paige cocked her head at him, trying to understand where he was coming from. "We're supposed to be working here."

Paige walked up beside Walter as he was glancing at different scattered notes.

"They really don't like this guy." He gave a short nod. "Maybe you should have told them up front? Just saying, secrets breed mistrust." Walter looked up at her with a half glare, but didn't say anything.

"So, this guy was like you guys, and then this?" She asked walking away from Walter.

"It happens sometimes." Happy said shortly.

"With Mark, it was intense, though. Like, if you played chess with him, he'd make you doubt your every move. And then checkmate." said Sylvester, his hands fidgeting.

"Against you?" questioned Paige incredulously.

Toby pulled a tape out of the mess that he was attempting to go through and pressed the play button.

"But, sir, I'm almost certain there will be a major problem unless we find a way to run the SCADA update. Nothing until 6:46. Channel went dark for 14 minutes." The voice from the tape said.

"Who is that on tape?" asked Cabe.

"A scientist at the reactor, talking over an internal radio." said Walter, his mind racing.

"And SCADA ? These old reactors run on ancient 1980s technology. SCADA is the brain that controls the rest of the system. And it needs to be kept up to date." Sylvester said, thinking out loud.

"What are they covering up?" asked Happy as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Collins has been down here for years capturing everything he could about his neighbor, the Montero Nuclear Power Plant. Rising ocean temperatures, radiation levels near the plant."

Sylvester set down the papers he was going through.

"Right, so the water's getting warmer, more radioactive, and then someone at the power plant says there's a problem." Walter said finishing Sylvester's thoughts.

"Poof, communications went blank." Toby said throwing his arms in the air.

"Collins is alerting us to a major problem at the reactor that's being actively ignored." Cabe said, his mouth thinning into a straight line.

"Why on earth would someone do that?" asked Paige, her voice going an octave higher.

"Standard bureaucratic cover-your-ass. Shocking to think that would extend to nuclear materials, but it does."

"Okay, so we pass this on to the army, and we are done here, right?" Toby had a mock pleading look on his face, though Paige knew that was what he truly wanted.

"No." Toby groaned loudly. "Collins wouldn't have called us unless he thought it needed our expertise." Walter said, a harsh look on his face.

"Since when does he call us?" Happy's voice was also harsh. Paige was almost surprised at the hatred that plagued all of them.

"General Walker said he needs our help." Walter said shortly, Paige guessed that Walter was guilty over something, he rarely got so involved with something that he could easily disregard.

"Who knows how dangerous this situation is?"

"Exactly." pointed out Walter. Happy ran her hand through her hair and it looked like she was about to pull her hair out.

"Guys, what's happening here?" interrupted Paige, hoping for some semblance of peace in their team.

"We just took a job upgrading an ancient nuclear power plant. End of story." Walter said firmly and louder than any other responses from the team members.

.

.

"We need him." said Walter as he referred to the prospect of bringing Collins to them.

"A little more on Collins? He's what my teachers used to call me, bad influence. He and Walter would push each other and just get lost in the work." Toby said bitterly.

"Theoretical algorithms for days."added Sylvester.

"No breaks, no food, no sleep." Happy said with something in her voice that gave Paige the idea that something had happened that involved it all.

"They'd barely speak. Sometimes we'd lose Walter for weeks." Toby interjected. "It's called a savant dissociative state."

"Not pretty." Happy said, her voice showing a bit of distaste.

"Then what?" Paige asked, hating the pictures that kept popping into her mind. The thoughts of Walter starving and being so helpless was startling. Walter had always seemed so strong and in control of himself it seemed impossible that such a thing could happen. She had seen him focused on his work, but not so focused that it was like there was nothing else there.

"Mark just disappeared."

.

.

The sight of Mark Collins walking up to them was something Paige catalogued away in her mind. His hair was in a scraggly mess and his slight beard seemed to be a little crooked. And his clothing had wrinkles, of course the handcuffs didn't do him any favors.

"Come on, let's get to work." Collins said eagerly as he shuffled enthusiastically up to the team. "The gang's all here."

"I love it! Sylvester, my brother! Come on."

As he walked up to Sylvester and gave him an awkward hug that Sly didn't reciprocate. Paige sighed, she felt sorry for the poor man. Sylvester's dislike of the man, hell the whole team's disgust spoke in volumes to Paige.

.

.

"Happy, we've only got one shot." Walter said referring to the diagnostic test that she was adamant that was necessary. "If your diagnostic crashes the system, then we have a meltdown in seventeen and a half hours, and we might not have enough time to rebuild the system from scratch."

Paige tapped her foot impatiently. She could already see how Mark Collins was getting into all of their heads. She was sure that he wouldn't be any good. It was starting to tear the team apart.

"If Collins runs the download before the system's ready for it, we have a meltdown now." argued Happy. Her voice came in loud over the system, Paige mentally congratulated her for how she was sticking with the diagnostic test.

"Happy's never liked me. Her opposition is personal. It's not based on knowledge. Knowledge that I have of this reactor that she doesn't. Trust me." Collins said, angled towards Walter. Paige figured that Collins was using Walter's guilt against him.

"I have complete confidence in this." Walter said after a moment in thought.

"Well, you'd better be right, son. Because there's no do-over." Cabe said glancing towards the two men.

"Don't do it, Walter." urged Happy.

Just as she said it Walter began the update. Paige felt dread pool in her stomach. Things could still go completely wrong and most of their previous missions had. She was sure there would be consequences of trusting Collins for even a second, but at this point there was just about nothing to do that could convince Walter to change his mind. She could try and refuse sex, but that probably would never work.

"Okay. We are downloading the reactor calibrations. Four-minute ETA." Sylvester said, his voice trembling.

.

.

"The others were always very sharp, Walter, but they were never us."

Paige hated the mumblings that she could only slightly overhear from Collins. He kept degrading the team and Paige had half a mind to go up to him and say all the amazing things about the team. Yet, she knew that Walter had to at least figure out most of it for himself.

After a moment a soft explosion echoed in the room and Paige held her arms out to steady herself. Then one of the alarms started blaring and dread pooled further down in her stomach. Something was wrong.

Walter cursed under his breath before collecting his composure. "Happy, what do you see?"

"The backup generator in chamber one blew out." Toby replied first.

"Walter, I think it's my fault. It happened right after I-I ran the system check." Happy said and Paige could hear the sounds of her and Toby moving around.

"Happy, I told you not to!" exclaimed Walter as he ran a hand through his hair.

"We evacuate now, before all the containment doors close." said the General that brought Collins in.

"Containment? Why am I thinking this isn't a drill?" said Toby sarcastically. "No, this is what you get when an aging system is held together with duct tape and a Hail Mary for 30 years."

Several beeps and hisses were heard from what Paige thought was the cooling system.

"Cooling system! Radiation leak! Get out of here now!" yelled Sly as he moved towards the door.

"O'Brien, get your ass in gear!" Cabe said as the others started leaving. Paige looked back at Walter and couldn't help the stab of guilt as she left the room. She still had Ralph to think of, and Ralph went above all things.

.

.

"We can't let him die." Walter said as he watched the monitor of where Cabe was trapped outside of the room.

"You're actually worried about a man's life? That's not the Walter O'Brien I remember." Collins mocking voice said. Paige could feel her anger rising at Collins simple words. There was no point in trying anything yet to reveal her anger towards the man.

"You can help him." countered Walter, his face cross.

"Doesn't need all of us to upgrade the system. We could solve two problems at once." Paige cut in quickly, hoping for a peaceful resolution. Collins shot her a look that she couldn't describe.

"The effluent pipe. Pumps water out of the reactor and into the ocean." said Sylvester, already following her idea.

"He could get in it and ride it out away from the power plant." deduced Walter as he tugged his lip between his teeth.

"Which one is it? I don't remember off the top of my head." asked Sylvester as his hands began to shake slightly.

"I recorded radio chatter about it last cooling system check." said Collins, an excited spark in his eyes. "June of '04. It's back at my house. It's five minutes away."

"Take him." demanded Walter. "Under guard." He added after Happy's glare.

"Happy, go with him, translate the schematics." Paige thought that Walter's idea was the best yet, Happy would surely be able to keep him in check and the thought caused a smile on Paige's face.

"Hey, Collins, you lay off her, or we have an issue." Toby said as Happy rolled her eyes.

"Happy and Collins might not play nice together. Can you I'll go with them." Paige whispered to Sly as Happy and Collins began to leave.

"Walter, do I want to hear the stats on how this might turn out?" Cabe's voice caused a deep chill down Paige's spine at the idea. The thought of death to befall Cabe seemed impossible, Paige was sure when the grim reaper came Cabe would stare it down until it walked away.

"I'd say, best guess, you have a one-in-three chance." Walter said scratching the back of his neck. Paige silently noted the nervous tick.

"Walter, if my life is in the hands of this Collins guy, I need to know if you're hiding something." Cabe's voice was crackly and Paige watched as Walter took in a deep breath of air.

"Three years ago, I had him committed to an asylum." The sentence came out in a quick breath.

"Fantastic."

.

.

"The moment this update hits the reactor, it's programmed to drop all of the core temperatures to a normal level." said Sly as he glanced over the information.

"Which means the meltdown is Correct."

"And then I get hammered." murmured Toby under his breath.

"What if this doesn't work?" asked Paige, her anxiety setting in.

"You got roughly 45 minutes." calculated Sylvester.

"Take your car, get Ralph, drive like hell past the Santa Monica mountains." Walter said immediately.

"Radiation cloud should pool up in the San Fernando Valley basin. You might be okay." said Happy, a thoughtful look on her face. "No one would blame you if you wanted a head start."

"If it doesn't work, I'll go get Ralph."

Paige didn't like the idea of leaving the rest of the team to most likely die just to save herself and Ralph. Yet, no matter what Ralph always came first. If she had to choose between Walter and Ralph, she would choose Ralph without hesitation. Her son would always come first in her life.

"But it will. I believe in us." Walter said glancing up.

.

.

"Numbers are my photo albums." Collins ran a finger over the paper and looked up at Paige with a slight leer.

"Days elapsed since significant occurrences. I change them every morning. That's my birthday. My mother's birthday." Paige noticed the almost aggressive looks he kept sending her as he spoke.

"So, I'm still trying to piece out your role here. No offense, but you're clearly not a genius." Collins took a step towards her and Paige resisted the urge to take a step back.

"No." She said after a moment looking back up at him.

"But my son is enabled, like you." He nodded and Paige could almost physically see his mind swirling in thoughts.

"Walter's trying to repair his youth through your son as well as trying to get into your pants." Collins said simply as he sorted through more information.

"No, he cares about Ralph, and Ralph is crazy about Walter. And you know absolutely nothing." Paige growled out. She refused to let her anger get the best of her.

"Walter's the Pied Piper of geniuses. We all worship him." A pinch of bitterness sinks into his voice. "What he's capable of, how he makes us feel special for being special. That's why it hurts so much when he throws you away when he's done with you."

"Walter would never do something like that." Paige said, instantly defending him. She had little doubts about it all, but she would never let it show.

"I was his experiment, once. The highest IQ that he'd ever seen, other than his own. Until I couldn't color in the lines the way that he wanted me to, and then I was gone. How many times has he avoided conflict by telling you he's fine? You get about 1,000 I'm fines before you realize that nothing is fine and you are getting shown the door. And then you realize that you're an experiment, too. You and your son." Collin's voice was ice cold and Paige tried to push away the needling thoughts and focused on the times that Walter had attempted to sort out his feelings and such, if it all was an experiment he would never do that.

Would he?

"Update's complete." Happy said interrupting her thoughts.

"Now we just need to compress the file, send it from here to the reactor computer and no more nuclear meltdown." Collins said, in work mode.

"Sylvester, can you start the compression?" Walter's voice crackled through the comms.

"I can do that, yeah." Paige hated the stutter in Sly's voice.

.

.

"The code, Collins." demanded Walter as his hand hovered over the keypad.

"Nine five one." gave Collins.

"No, that's not it." Walter's voice was beginning to sound desperate.

"Could've sworn it was 951." He said, reminiscing in his voice. What had happened with the number nine hundred fifty one?

"Nine hundred and fifty one days ago, Mark and I disproved a section of the Higgs boson theory."

"Excellent work! It's 1199."

Paige assumed that this referenced to another day between the two. The actual code had to be something else monumental in their friendship. Maybe when they met or the day he was sent away. It would make sense if he was using his emotions.

"What is happening here?" yelled Cabe as he jogged up.

"I know Walter found out that I set this whole thing up. I was listening to your conversation at the reactor base. The whole place is mic'd." Collins yelled as if to calm everyone, like his declaration would make it all better.

"Just over a minute left!" said Sylvester nervously.

"What the hell's the holdup? Just give us the damn code!" yelled Cabe as he waved his gun around threateningly.

"Or what? You'll shoot me? That only guarantees you'll fail." Collins rolled his eyes. "Walter, how do you stand for such intellectual inferiors?"

"The code." Walter was deathly serious.

"I told you. It's 1199."

"One-one-nine-nine. it was May 20, it was a Thursday we stayed up all night in a diner discussing the quantum mechanics of time travel."

"We could have accomplished anything together, but you ruined that." Collins spoke as if he was speaking to a man who had committed one of the most vile of crimes.

"You hate me for what I did. I get it." said Walter, his voice going lower. "And I always debate my decision, but this isn't the right solution."

"And having me locked up was? Do you have any idea how badly that hurt me?"

The alarms for the center began to blare wildly at the signal that they were losing time. Paige thought of Ralph and hoped that if they were to fail that he could be alright. Even if she thought that it was impossible she still hoped.

"There's less than a minute." warned Sylvester.

"Do you think I'm afraid to die, Walter? I'm not afraid to die. My life ended the day that you destroyed our partnership, our friendship. I just wanted to show you that I could save everyone.

I just wanted back on the team." said Collins, a deranged glare in his eyes.

"Walter, that's it." Paige said, her eyes lighting up. Walter's head whipped towards her direction. "The day his life ended, the day he lost you."

"Seven hundred and eighty-two days."

"What's the date?!" yelled Sylvester.

"August 22, 2012!" yelled Walter back.

"No!" yelled Collins as Cabe promptly shot him in the knee. Paige cringed as the blood spread over his pants.

"All right, code's in, signal's up." said Walter, sighing appreciatively.

"Did it work?" asked Toby as the alarms faded away.

"I know this might be awkward, but I, for one, am against Mark rejoining the team." murmured Happy.

.

.

"I should have kept a closer eye on Collins." said Walter as he walked beside Paige, while they were waiting for everything to get sorted out.

"Well, why didn't you?" asked Paige gently.

"I was focused on the upgrade."

"You were focused on a friend. You were trying to make right what happened between you guys." said Paige as she glanced over at him. "So you trusted him."

"That implies I feel guilt." He said, his face scrunching up.

"Acting like a human being is never a mistake. Means you're evolving. It's nice to see that you're capable of that." said Paige, she couldn't help the fuzzy feeling that engulfed her at the idea.

.

.

"This is pretty ironic, isn't it? First day I see you in years I'm back to lockup. I showed you the outer limits of your intelligence and you couldn't handle it. You couldn't risk me, or anybody else, jeopardizing your team, your precious cyclone." Collin's voice filled with disgust.

"They are worth it." Walter said without conviction.

"Why them? Toby, Happy, Sylvester they can't touch my abilities. So why wasn't there room for one more? But there was." He said mockingly as Walter remained stoic.

"Paige. She binds us." Walter couldn't help but wonder what the odd feeling that he felt around her was?

"I'm going away. But I'll get out Maybe I'll see you back down the rabbit hole, Walter." Collin's sounded threatening, but Walter wouldn't let it get to him.

"I hope not."

.

.

"Hey, everyone." said Paige as she pushed open the Garage door. Her arms were full of the ingredients she had just bought at the grocery store. She intended on getting all of the geniuses together for bonding time and so her and Walter could finally break the news that they were dating.

"Hey." said Walter as he walked over to take some of the bags. "Uh, did we have, uh, a meeting scheduled?" he asked.

"No, we just dropped by." said Paige, as she sent him a look reminding him of what they needed to do. "Because even after you save the world, you're still all lost in thought, doing your own separate projects. Tonight we have a group project."

"Chicken piccata." said Paige as she set some of her bags on the kitchen table.

"I don't think we have a chicken thermometer." said Sylvester worriedly, he rushed over and started rifling through the drawers.

"Well, pizza would be more efficient." interjected Toby.

"We're all going to get out of our own heads for a while and cook Italian." Paige said hoping to end all other possible conversation topics involving the food.

"Sounds fine." added Walter. Toby gave him a strange look.

They cooked with jovial tones and Paige was proud that even Happy laughed. There was the ever present butterflies that were rocketing around in Paige's stomach at the prospect of telling the team their little secret.

Her eyes met Walter's for a moment before he quickly looked away at the food that was just finishing cooking.

As they ate their food laughter flew around freely. There was an ever present smile on each person's face.

"Oh, by the way, Paige and I are dating." said Walter casually.

The talking ceased and all eyes were shifting between Walter and Paige.

 **A/N: So there's one part in the story where Paige is supposed to go with Collins and Happy not Sly, but I got too far into it to change it. So this is just to let you guys know. Also I'm soooooo sooorrrryyy for how long it has been since I update, like six months. But, I lost motivation and I couldn't figure out how to write it. And it is a little bit shorter than the other chapters.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing of this no matter how much I want to.**


End file.
